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PECTRU 



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A NEWSF1ELD PUBUCAT 

No. 29 JUNE t j 









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GARGOYLE 



REDHAWK, 
SP1NDIZZY, 

BOUNDER 
QUAZATRON 



ELITE GAMES ON OFFER 





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ULTIMATE " 






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; 5 6uyrng an 
eight event sports simulation^ 
'Or me « means nrne,',' 

" (Ve got to wrestle my brother 
first to get to play it J tt/ateh out Daley, 
ffl t>e your first rea/ competition 
Well I started on a nigh, Pistol 
Shooting? op probtem for 'Deadeye* 
^Jafetf ai^ then Cyding, ooyV on 
reaf/y pwfi(3& those pe&te - 
Nfce they say- *~ 
*wr>en youte hot - youtefior* 
Ftien Spnng Soa/O Dfwng, ohay so 
t fceeprwtiihg jth© wafefbptiks&e 

1 rfie rest was down 
but f nearfy puWeeUiis arms 
off in the Tug O War 



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etittKntm but tte got 
an the action mere .. in tact /f 
fhorn fftfi wanna mahe Rampo Sinfces 
Bach alt mey have to do is film me tn 
action on this joystick i ptched tip my 
machine gun, urped our raff tne jungle 
iwth my e*ptosfl/e war head, (thatS 
not mybralnf), but that fooh-oot 
post just keeps on gapping me — 
/'ffgef him next time round, 
t ftaverrt gor to the chopper yet., 
iVe got to get my act together, 
if Thorn frtl saw my last 
attempt ffttonJy be good for 
Ramho Carries on Launhtnql 



All 

FORTH! 

$PttT*VM 

FROM 



...you cant beat 



Ocean Software Limned 
6 Central Street Manchester M2 5N5. Telephone: 06 1 832 6 



The ins true bons XeH me fm Donovan, wnh • 

a mission . wow, that guy's a real heep-nt 

UeoK the next thing / Knew I was run/ting 

down the oofrtdors of the Mother Ship, yen, 

running', just a quick fflp OO IhejOyStKh 

• and I was jumping head ever heats, a 

real ttaHeys Comet job over some 

tazercraiy robot then tgot into the 

communtputer - laying charges to 

blow the ship to kingdom come, 

? RED 0U5T formula 

and getting wised up 

new robots hey 

fit have to see 

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lefriQerat^f'-couid 
-irtkrtg&beH 
■"/WCHantt rupning for 
rooms 'Vee 
T/s^iQulOefpads 
and alt ' took W<e 5m» f Ifch I n>' o?»'sh tot. Anyway its my tqn* 
on thefeaaandrm going fora 'RUSh" ftA« - that* 
real heavy goaMine pky and. OOftaOrt SfffneTTJU... 
f fe« thai woch now r hnqw.*ny nei caHed the 

■Refntjera,to* 




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Enjoy Ihe esiitemcnt of (he wcrkT» prrrruer sporting 
occasion te> the whole d the globe focuses attention on 
the ultimate in football ac ruewmrnt - Vbbrld 
Cup victory. 

Fbfluw th* action m it happen* with ■. 

computer progress chart . play out the 
i tit red match nviMnterv nation 
i nation in your awn tompuloT 
i and capture 
i of thu 

momentous compel ■ I 



* TSPCWMUV PRODUCTIONS WH, 






aexeo86 



and its Latin American setting 

— irf its people and the fervour and 
(SD . fiihusuim they demonstrate for 

their spurt 



Wbrid Cm p Carnival The ONUT 

I football supporters' 

nfwtyfor 



OLUPt. 

official 1 
computer game. The ONLSf Way for 
a computer enthusiast Id follow the 
UbridCup 

ftupmmmetl by A S QtilgK* 



MQUt - OrJiaal ntm FDA Vtald Cap WW, 



'Wo. 



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76 



i»m[in 



VDC 






U.S. Gold Ltd,, Unit 1} The Parkway Industrial Centre, He wage Street Birmingham B7 4LY. Tel : Q21-3W ttSl 












Publishing Executive 



ISSUE No. 29 June 1986 



Editor 
Groom* Kidd 
Technical Editor 
Franco Frwy 
Tech Tipster 

QWlmttw UQOQWOl 

Adv&nture Eririor 



Strategy Editor 

Soon Mastenwn 

Staff Writers 

Hannah Smith . Lloyd Mangram 

Contributing Writnni 

hlohn Mirion. Jon DMii 

n04#lt* McLeOQ 

Aft Editor 

Oliver Frey 

Art Director 

OkkShkm 

Production Controller 

Devfcl Western 

Production 

Gordon Druce, Tony Umon 

PrOCOU C*fTM»f A 
■ ■■■■fc ■■■■ I iWI I H 

impmrviiVMiB 
Phoiographar 

C#mprof rMMto 
Ativnflisomont Mgntgtr 
f aag arftwH wr H 
AdvwiuwmeriT Assistant 
MekWiM 
Subscriptions 
Oenrs* Roberts 
Mailorder 
Carol Kintey 

Editorial and production 

1/? King Street. Ludlow, 

Shropshire SYB 1 AQ 

B 05*4 Be* t 

Mail order and subscriptions 

FO So* 10, Ludlow. Shmpstiera 

SY81DB 

IT 05*4 5*20 

ADVERTISING 

i r > ■ ■ r, and booking* 
•05S4 4603 m 0S8-J 5852 

Punted in England by CarlhUe 
Web Offset (member of the BPCC 
Group) Newtown Trading £ stale. 

fl.Cumbna. CoksMf 
or lOinsl-on by Scan Studio*. 
Wallace Rood, London N1 
Distributed by C0MAG, Tavistock 
Road. MM Drayton. Middx UB7 

tic irvnanai mty tm raprdducad in 
■whole or hi pan without tha wriBon 

cor»wr.tottU<opyr, lirhoW^» W« 

t*fVnotund»rt«*»ta return .nrvwriMrv 

o« phourcpfifcMiartal santki to 
CRASH magaOna urttow «ccom0Mi»ad 
bf * fluflabry otolrtpofl i d i * *l t ail 
w**topr LUph^Mrtttan w photo 
rMSSnai hmui may do u**o «» im 
magiaitna la paid tor •: our currant 
rata* 

r. 19W MowsReid Umhad 




ANEWSF&LD PUBLICATION 



ABC 



JULYDEC 1965 
Total: 93.356 

UK t 69,441 



FEATURES 

3fl OF MYSTICAL NUMBERS . . . 

Harness the puwi-r of the MYSTICAL 
SUBSCRIBER NUMBER and g«t it working lor you 

43 GENESIS: THE BIRTH OF A GAME 

Your chance to collect a cash prize ol at least 
£1,000 as we start off a six month feature on the 
creation of a game 

54 THOROUGHLY STARSTRUCK 

Hannah Smith takes a trip to Leeds and finds out 
about the people behind Realtime Games 
Soltware. the 3D Masters 

9B GATHERING GAMES TOGETHER 

Graeme Kidd e* amines the current craze for 
compiling old I and not so old I titles onto software 
albums 



REGULARS 



7 EDTTORIAL 
11 NEWS 

Catching up on the CES Show, ZX Microfair and a 
few other interesting developments 

14 FEAR AND LOA THING 

Hunter SMinson staggers round Irorn software 
launch to softwa re launch in a Blood y M a ry 
induced fwue of near consciousness 
41LLOYO MANG RAM'S FORUM 



T ii ■■.4t i -M\ tit <XliI-l +1*1-1 1 ■?it+B<1Jrt[i fcVM'f |] , 



chrt chat, tittle tattle and opinion which Lloyd 
presents for your entertainment 

58 CRASH COURSE 

Rosette takes a took at some revision software 
(his month 

64 HANNAH SMITHS PLAYING TIPS 

" takes over from Robin and introduces a 

xtravagsma as well as a host of tips, hints 
TOftEs 

74 TECH NICHE 

Continuing, the round up of matters more 
technical with a bit of musk to help the hardware 
— down! 

SIMON GOODWIN'S TECH TIPS 

Simon delves inside the CRASH 128K Specif urn 
and finds some very interesting things lurking 
there- And the listing for his SpecDrum routine 
appears at lest (Oops' I 

82 RESULTS 

Yet mora list* and lists of lucky winners' names in 
the mrtmrhly prcta share-out 



52 A CHANCE TO GET YOUR 
VERY OWN RAT 

CCS have set a few brain teasers of a historical 
nature, and are going (o reward fifty lucky 
winners with a copy of DESERT RATS 

57 THE BATCOMPETITION 

Holy Free Games Robin I Delve into the Betsquare, 
find the Batwords and win a Batgame 

462 TEMPT A SAILORMAN'S PALATE 

MacMilUn are re- releasing POPE YE and have 
some nifty wall clocks, alarm clocks, T Shirts and 
games to give away in this culinary competition 

75 GET WITH THE BEAT 

A TECH NICHE competition, which tests your 
musical knowledge. Three SPECDRUMS on offer, 
plus money -off vouchers for anyone who gets tha 
answers ell right 

97 THIRD 128K COMPETITION 



Jood Now you can have one mora go 
at winning a 128K Spectrum, courtesy of 
Newsfieltl 



84 PBM MAILBOX 

Brandon Kavanagh does his bit to increase the 
Post Office profits, starling a new column on Play 
By Mail games 

87 DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE 
TRAIL 

Derek* heavily into HEAVY ON THE MAGrCK, 
amongst other things this month 

92SIGNSTUMPS 

More tips and hints on Adventuring, followed by 
the u mi ill mix of opinions in the Adventure Forum 

102 CRASH HOTLINE AND ADVENTURE 
CHARTS 

106 HOME GROWN SOFTWARE 

A peek a games written at home, plus a pie* for 
more 

108 SEAN MASTERSON'S FRONTLINE 

Another look at DESERT RATS in a new improved 
format, together with the FRONTLINE FORUM 
MrMasterson s buried under letters nowadays 

113 ON THE SCREEN 

The CRASH Readers Gallery In which lame and 
fortune tempts computer 

12 1 MEREL Y MANGRAM 



Lloyd gets his teeth into the news of up and 
coming games, and we lake a look at GHOSTS 
AND GOBLINS and BIGGLES amongst other 
things 



Summertime fun, available in the form 
of the July CRASH, out on 26th June 



CRASH June T986 




l/REL the 30 arcade challenge for the thinking player 
■VSeventy mmd stretching screens, each ore more complex 
than the previous,, but providing its own ndfVMJual challenge. 
Obvious or obscure - can you get through before your time or 
stamina rum oul? Can you find the transporter networks, 
snatch the energy supplies and defuse the bombs before you 
are blown up (or sucked into oblivion)? Can you avoid the 
lurking terrors, conquer invisible obstacles and immovable 
bamers? 

If s all here in KIREL - one of the new generation of games 
from Addictive - PRICE £8.95 for the SPECTRUM 
Addictive products can be bought from aU good software 
stockists but «\ case of difficulty may be obtained direct from 
us bymailoidei at the prices shown (UK P&P included but 
overs eas customers must add £150). 

pr**! jnbelrt?pl>sr*dl»¥d«Jt5ht«(0?(>?)^6404 





rant oofUM Rnttfli Mmafnafll ffm nd 

Hw mw Hit i onJ tnMfri djtfASy AluH 
:£9 9b BBC r£fl» Commodore 64 
■ JUS 95 C 16 '1**4 nt6« Or* S or, i 

£7 95 Electron .it 4&9S Spectrum j 1 ! 

£fl« WC»w.l6K*f7« JMl itO.W 



BOFFIN 



S»m* ever Mitten tor We fcOm t.lertrofi'BBC 
^■orxMdU iense or rurw' Iflfctfi* M«ww| 




TSHIRTS 



rfy«jtjptayAtMK!fM*i»n>«v«jn%j'}1*i«tone(1<tt»Wfft 
S™H/M**um>'lifR*'wKL £3.75 pjcH 





Post io Addictive Games 10 Albert Road Bournemouth ■ Dorsel 6H11BZ 



D Kirel 

D Boffin 

□ Football Manager- Machine 

D Addictive T-shirts 

Cheque/ Postal Order/ Access 

Name 

Address 



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£ 



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Budget software labels are 
on the increase, and budget 
games are getting better, 
slowly. 

This must represent a 
"good thing" for most 
Sped rum game players, as 
ten pound game seems to 
have become the norm 
While you usually get more 
game the more you pay, it's 
not always the case, 

Mastertronic, without 
doubt, lead the field in the 
budget market — dominating 
the industry charts to the 
extent that a debate is raging 
about whether budget 
games should be excluded 
from the mainstream charts 
and put tidily somewhere 
else where their success is 
not quite so evident. From 
the point of view of a lot of 
retailers, budget games are 



bad news. You see, the mark 
up they make on a £1 99 or 
£2.99 cassette is much less 
than on a 'fu (I price' game, yet 
it takes up the same amount 
of shelf space and the same 
amount of time, trou' 
paperwork is involve 
getting the cassette v 
shop and on the shttf More 
units have to be Mid to 
achieve a gi|Mflja*et of profit. 

Perhaps refflters, 
distributors — and 
prog ramme rS(W h o gene. . 
receive a royr 
unit sales — . 
prepared to support budget 



mar 



Men to work very well, u 
tittKiike firebird's Booty 
ossing t rre 100,000 b 
:ttertohave 1Q0, 
Z5ps i 
ier who lives 



are a pr 
onr 



128K 

budget ga„ 
Knight fyme^l 
Mastertronic 
Range. Ther- 



thera's a hint of 
j fact that the first 
and anginal 
released for the 



*• 



id Jones' 

sed-by 

-irMAD 

, dies of 




mora and moreco-. 
are following the trend 
dil cheapo games era 90 
quality, but the hudgei 
as a respectable product ' 
here to st ay 










ASHj «neT986 7 




r 



DEALING OUT THE CARDS? 



2» A «8ft «SflP. tj^ an, 

W .JLW .4B, ,«, * ® 9 



4Mft 



* TT 

*• ON 



MM 






" *■ a 2? * 

- MUM 

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3NK 



Good news for anyone still 
thinking about buying a Spec- 
trum 128— the price has drop- 
ped already, and the first CRASH 
Smash has just been awarded to 
an original 1 28 game I 

As we sent this issue to press, 
the first rumours of a new 
AmBtrad/Spectrym games mac- 
hine began to circulate. Mutter 
ings about a Spectrum based 
machine with 256K memory 
sold as a super games machine 
for under £200 were heard. 

The rumour has it that Astron 
cards — credit card si*ed slivers 



of plastic containi rig programm- 
able memory chips — will be 
used. Maybe this is what AJao 
Sugar meant by controlling the 
Spectrum software market. If 
Amstrad do Come up with an 
economically viable games 
machine which effectively uses 
non-piratable cartridges to load 
games {which will almost cert- 
ainly push the price of games 
up), they may be able to control 
whose programs actually gel 
put onto the cartridges, 



Fortunately for ail existing 
Spectrum owners, there's little 
danger of Amstrad dominating 
the cassette software market in 
the way they have come to 
preside over the home compu- 
ter hardware market in this 
country, There's no sign, as yet, 
of the software 'approval' sch- 
eme that Alan Sugar hinted at 
during the announcement of his 
company's acquisition of a large 
chunk of Sinclair's assets. 



MORE AND MORE 



This issue of CRASH sees the 
start of several new sections in 
the magahne Brandon Kavan- 
agh kicks off a regular column 
on the Play By Mail gaming 
world with an introduction to the 
mechanics of such games, and 
will be contributing news, views 
and reviews on the Play By Mait 
scene on a regular basis. 

Rainbird have kindly agreed to 
sponsor an Art Gallery section, 
in which CRASH readers get the 
opportunity to 'hang' their 
SCREENS creations on a page in 
the magazine and then on (heir 
wall at home in the form of a full 

8 CRASH June 1986 



colour screen dump produced 
by Dimension Graphics at Rain- 
bird's expense. 

For the next si* months we 
will be watching the develop- 
ment of a new game for Christ- 
mas — a game which will be 
designed by a CRASH reader, 
pr og r amm ed b> Design Daatan 
and taken to the marketplace by 
Domark We'll provide a 
monthly update on progress, 
and reveal lots of the secrets that 
lie behind the process of getting 
a game into the High Street 
shout. 

And a section on "Home 



Grown Software' begins gently, 
in which we take a look at some 
of the games you have been 
writing, rather than playing 

There's never been a better 
time to subscribe to CRASH! 
Apart from the new things that 
are happening between the 
covers, the power of the MYS- 
TICAL SUBSCRIBER NUMBER 
has finally been harnessed, 
bringing a host of goodies into 
the laps of readers whose copy 
of CRASH arrives through the 
mail Take a peek at Pages 38 
and 39 and see if you tan resist 
the temptations on offer I 



ADVERTISERS 


' INDEX 


Addktive 


8 


AMgata 
ATtfT 


136 
40 


AT AY 


91 


Beyond 


128 


Classified 


107 


CRASH Mail Order 


112 


CRASH T Shirts and B 




106 


CRASH Subscription* 


CRASH posters 


28.29 


CRL 


2S 


Digital Integration 


61 


Domark 


135 


Elite Back Cover 




Gargoyle Gamn 


86 


Global 


47.77 


Gremlin 


22,139 


Hewson* 


27 


Imagine 


36, 37, 1 19 


, ■nupmiri 


9 


Kempston 


10 


term 


91 


Levels 


16 


1 Mancomp 


46 


Melbourne House 


S3 


Mik re-Gen 


as 


Mind Games 


96,114 




43 


Mirrorsoft 


46 


Mosaic 


33 


Otiposten 


28,29 


Ocean 2.3. 


Probe 


63 


Qukfcsirva 


85,101 


mm 


13 


Sag* 


78 


Superior Software 
US Gold 


120 
4,93,104 


Virgin 


10 



THE MONTHLY 
SOFTWARE STAR 
FOR YOUR 
US GOLD 
CALENDAR 





ADvennme 

The amazing, combined text and graphics adventure generator enables 
you to produce fast, compact adventure games with themmimum of effort and 
the maximum of creativity. Stunning graphics can be created quickly and easily 
with the powerful picture generator that has many features induding:- dot, 
cirde, elastic line, ellipse, fast fill, shading, step by step review, easy editing and 
the ability to merge pictures. 

The comprehensive, intelligent command interpreter can handJe complex 
sentences and multiple input commands. There is also an extensive text com- 
pression fadlrty that allows you to produce far more detailed and numerous 
location descriptions. Plus a full function editor, automatic word formatting, a 
logical command interpreter and an abbreviated input acceptance facility. 

So unleash the power of your imagination now with The Graphic 
Adventure Creator, for your Spectrum computer. Available from all leading 
retailers or direct from Incentive on 0734 591678. 

INCENTIVE SOFTWARE LTD. 54 London Street, Reading RG1 4SQ. I 



IPtease rush me, for my Spectrum 
Computer THE GRAPHIC ADVENTURE 
CREATOR g^| — 

D Cassette £22.95 

I en dose Cheque/ PO for £. 






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No 



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GAMES CENTRE 




Selected titles at 
under £5 
Many games with 
El or £2 off r.r.p. 



The fast 
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game of 

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and mental 
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BROMLET 140/144 High Street (in Burton Menswear) 
GLASGOW 2a 32 Union Street ■ LEW 94/96 Bnggale 
PLTMimi 1 05 Armada Way ■ 10*00* 100 Oxford Street 
■ TOP MJW Oxford Cm 



10 CRASH June 1986 





SORRY DEPA 



Apok>gt«8if>duMoM»cs«n fAiblishersof a ranjje of TV fl »mesnow 
games, including Bulisiye. Countdown, Traasur* Hunt and, of 
course. Bhckbostvrs, which w* annhtnoil totally incorrectly to 
Qttannte Software in the April review of Pfay Your Curds fltght 
Evereo tony. M*cun Promise wo won't do ti again? Expect more 
reviews of Mecsan products next teaue 



MICROFAIR— 

A FINE TIME HAD BY ALL 

Our resident TECH TIPSTER Simon Goodwin 
escaped from his Black Country lair a few 
Saturdays ago, and scurried off to the May 
Microfair 



Uncle Cltve, Alan Sugar and the 
PsMan may have missed the 
May ZX MICROFAIR. but bar- 
gain hunters thronged nonethe- 
less, and few left disappointed 

Opu* did a roaring trade in 
£100 Discovery Disc Systems — 
including a Spectrum 128 ver- 
sion with re-written software. 
Two video digitizers, from Sun- 
set and an mtrigingly named 
Dutch firm called Date Skip 
made an appearance. These 
gadgets tat you load pictures 
from a video camera or recorder 
into your Spectrum. At £1 28 and 
£69 they are not cheap, but the 
possibihtes for commercial soft- 
ware (besides Sew? Masierson 
Strip Diplomacy) are interesting 
and the results look good. We 
hope to review both products 
soon- 
Other hardware innovations 
included a radio-controlled joy- 
stick from AGF (review next 
issue) and a prototype percus- 
sion keyboard from Data l ink 
Systems of Wales, 

Fanzines were much in evid- 
enoe and I picked up copies of 



the latest issues of Interface, and 
Games Monitor, 

Interface Editor Lucien Ran- 
dall conducted a fruitless search 
for new software on our behalf 
— it seems that the producers 
ana more interested in shifting 
the last of their Christmas stock 
than in launching new games at 
the MICROFAIR lbs lime of year. 

Last months tales of the QL's 
deat h were rather premature — 
CST had Thor, a new QL com- 
patible machine at the Fair, and 
details of the Blackberry — a 
super QL designed by Sinclair 
escapees Tony Tabby and Jan 
Jones — were also circulating 
The non-arrival of the prototype 
Blackberry was blamed on a 
powercut during development. 
Both 5I2K mech tries should sell 
for around £500 

If the attendance al the Fair 
dropped of in mid afternoon, 
that was only to be expected on 
Cup Final Day! The Sinclair 
market seem?; to be thriving still, 
despite the upset of the last 
couple of months. , 






ALL CHANGE AT 



AMSTRAD 



Rapid developments on ttte 

128K Spectrum front al Chateau 
Sugar lead to a price cut which 



ardent Spectrum) 
A "^i-^. linefeed out *P*~ I 

*^ way a white ago- 

^Tavent **~**S2mlE\ 
for At)ery*twrythVrV^^* v J^ 



S2l^'/rCommodo»a owner 
SScarne along Ad **»££. 
*„: n» an hex" •*•'""■» Ld ' ° ' 

SCo2rite.Se of the events] 




Amttred refer to as an unbundl- 
ing rather then a price change. 
The mach ine on its own, without 
the two free games thrown in by 
Sinclair, should now be avail- 
able for £739.35 as opposed to 
the launch price of £179.95 — 
wh ten i ncluded 1 28K versi o ns of 
Daley Thomson's Supertest and 
Never Endma STory. 

The move is presumably aim- 
ed at Shifting existing stocks of 
the 128K machine so that High 
Street shelves have plenty of 
space for a relaunched version 
of the machine in time lor ihis 
Christmas. No firm details as to 
the form the 12AK Mark. II will 
take ere currently available, but 
Alan Sugar, Amstrad's boss, has 
already spoken of 'glueing on' a 
tape deck and firmly spoken 
against including a monitor with 
the machine in an all-inclusive 
package. 

Meanwhile, the first rumours 
of a new Amstrad computer 
using the Sinclair name have 
started Circulating, referring to a 
256K Spectrum which an indus- 
try pundit or two reckons should 
be in the shops by Christmas, 
selling for less than £200. 

CRASH June 1986 11 




THE PITS? 



THE CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW, held at London's 
Oh/mpia during the last full week of April, was a brt of a damp 
sou ib as far as ma noma computer Industry was concerned. Only 
a handful, albert a fairly large handful, of software and hardware 
companies e x h ibited at the show, which was a quiet, stow paced 
affair according to most observers, 

Amongst the names Included in the show guide were Mir- 
rorsoft who brought Biggies along to the Press Day and demoed 
early versions of Biggies. Dynamite Dan It and Reflex, and 
Rainbird, who used the show to announce tie-ins with both Level 
9 and Magnetic Scrolls (a company specialising in adventures 
written for 69000 based machines). Beyond was the only other 
wing of British Telecom present — Firebird stayed at home on the 
nest for the duration of the show, Mastertronk. Mikro Gen 
Ourell, Cheetah Marketing, and Bubble Bus also took exhibition 
space — Tom Prosser was available on the Bubble Bus stand to 
demonstrate an early version of his game (ctcle Pafsce. which 
features trainee mega-hero and part time Space Council worker, 
Nick, on a quest to recover his 1600 Turbo Cruiser, pinched by s 
joy-rider, Nick find* h im Self i naide a g ia nt therm ionic raacto T, and 
has to find eight sections of the reactor and dispose of them 
appropriately in order to prevent a race of evil aliens from 
attaining galactic domination, 

Very IHtte in (he way of new home computer product was in 
evidence; Amstrad Stayed trway. even though their range of 
Consumer Electronics equipment is much wider than home 
computers. The most popular area of activity was Satellite 
Television — half a dozen companies were pointing giant dishes 
into the ether, plucking out foreign TV broadcasts for the 
amusement of visitors to the show. One lady spent most of her 
time chucking the contents of ashtrays and cat litter boxes onto a 
square of carpet and vacuuming the mess back up, while row 
upon row of slick telephones looked on from their niches on other 
stands. It looks like the Personal Computer World Show in 
September is still set to be the main event of the home computing 
year. 



CHBETAH*NeATe**ETB* 



****** *£*! 

**X"Se sueoes* of "? t J*E£ n 



Bates ha - Souldba] 

!Z£L units and ** * n °riL5,l 
"*^?rJf™ri deal • el batnfc 



PLAYERS 
PLEASE? 

Richard Jonas of Interceptor 

was at the CES show, proud to 
be launchinga new budget label 
— Players. Players games will 
sell for £1 .99 retail and the 
range kicks off on 29th April with 
sixteen titles for the popular 
machines. 

With luck, we should be taking 
a look at the Players in the next 
issue — Richard had examples 
of the packaging and a very neat 
promotional video on his CES 
stand, but no gomes running so 
we couldn't get a sneak preview 
organised in time for these 
pages! Lots of wort has gone 
into the packaging design as 
well as the software, Richard 
assures us, and the new Inter- 
ceptor venture aims to catch a 
significant share of the budget 
market. 

Rtehmnt Jones of krtwrcmptor, and now Plnwi launching Him 
ii«i« kmbmtmtthm C£S mhomr. Am pw can *ma. Haying attva in 

thm HKHm bttainmm* it a Caaa at knowing how fa kamp all 
your battn k% tha air at tha %mma timaf 




A 



FIREBIRD SET-TO IGNITE THE 
ADVENTURE* EWORLD 






a* 1. 






Thm SJpnttip Cmrmmony which ta to i 

BM MFvvnfejra mn 

The main contract signing extra- 
vaganza of the CES show invol- 
ved British Telecom's self pro- 
claimed 'leading edge' label, 
Firebird, and adventure masters 
Law! 9. 
Pictured here, gathered round 



STAR HITS 
CES SHOW 



The only STAR attraction at the 
Consumer Electronics Show 
was arranged by Mkrrc-rsoft who 
invited the real Biggies to their 
stand to take a look at how work 
was progressing on the game of 
the film. Well, not the REAL 
Biggies, he didn't exist silly. Neil 
Dickson, star of the film which, 
as they say, should be at a 
cinema near you' right now. 

A few more words about Big- 
pies the computer game appear 
in the Preview section this issue 
and we hope to bring you a full 
mexl month. 




Nar/Dfofcivn, mupmrwtwr **irantfn#Jr« rryi him Hand #f trt* 
Amwtrmd wsion of BJGGLfS tha LU H yiulw mhii ■( 
HHtronoftm CES Mtmrrdirhil* thm ar*r ymitMut Grag trrgham, 
mdrhyr of trad* pmpmr CTW took* at tha nw i n n wi . 



12 CRASH June 1986 



nt to a nam vantttra in 

the contract signing table on the 
level 9 stand, are Tony Rainbird 
and Paula Byrne from Firebird 
and three members of the Aus- 
tin family tying up the deal. 

Rainbird will be marketing 
■sleeted Level 9 products in this 
country and in the USA — the 
first of which isto be a revamped 
versx>n of the Colossal Advent- 
uns. Dungeon Advenivre and 
Adventure Quest trilogy, The 
Level 9 team are currently hard 
at work adding graphics to the 
trilogy and improving (he lan- 
guage parser used in the orig- 
inal versions of the three adven- 
ture programs. A second multi- 
load adventure, provisionally 
titled Knight Ore, should be 
ready for release on the Rai nbi rd 
Label during September and a 
third Rain r>rd/Level 9 release is 
scheduled for December this 
year. 

The agreement between Rain- 
bird and Level 9 allows the 
Austins to continue as an inde- 
pendent software house, writing 
and marketing adventures 
under the Level 9 label — The 
Pnce of Magrk is virtually com- 
ptete, and should find its way 
into the shops any day now. 



OFFICIAL NASA 

Space Shuttle 

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As worn by the 
Shuttle Astronauts! 



A unique opportunity to collect a piece of Space Exploration is YOURS. 
Direct from the Official NASA supplier these individual exquisitely 

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chapter in the history of the Space Shuttle. 

Now YOU can collect them, display them in frames, on your 
clothes or under the glass of your coffee table, however you 
decide you will be proud to own them. 





Rew 

Enterprises 



reaching for the stars 



For catalogue send a LARGE SAEto; 
46 Femoale Park, Pedmore, 

Stourbridge, West Midlands. DY9 ORB, ENGLAND 



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REQUIRED 



Major software house based In London requites 
additional Programmers and Graphic Artists to work on all 
machines for conversion and original work hem either 
story board or own design. 

A studio environment with development systems, 
graphics, music and technical support is available If 
required. 

All applications will naturally be treated in the strictest 
confidence. Please apply with your CV and samples of your 
work to: Bom Mo. C101, Newsfield Publications, 1-2 King 
Street, Ludlow, Shropshire SY8 1AQ. 



CRASH June 1986 13 




Quite by chance I had become a 
guest of Ariolasoft, launching 
their Gott Construction Set at 
Wemworflv This is of absolutely 
no relevance to anything as it 
will never appear on the Spec- 
trum — though the rem ark of 
one Chris ( Think!) Palmer, that it 
may encourage you all to buy a 
decent machine is more inter- 
esting! Keep sending the mon- 
ey, Palmer, if you want to escape 
the wrath of Spectral Mafia or I 
may tell them where you live I 

I did do some sweet talking 
though and . . . yes, here at last is 
that photo of the lovely Mandy 
Barry indulging in a little, inno- 
cent bondage with two cowboys 

— a sight previously only tho- 
ught fit for the sick minds of C64 
owners 1 1s that the sort of micro 
you want to own 7 

This month's mega- lunch aw- 
ard goes to Hewsons though. 
Their Waldorf bash was so pres- 
tigious even Graeme emerged 
from his Ludlow den and with 
frun the delightful Hannah on 
her first official outing. The oc- 
casion was, of course, the 
launch of Quaiatron. Steve 
Turner is bade on top form and 
never one to stop for rest (An- 
drew Hewson won't let himf) 
he's already writing the next test 
of strategy and reflexes. 

Accompanying this was pro- 
bably the best meal 1 11 eat all 
nr — though other software 
ses are urged to try to better 
it! A three course sit down job 
with good company too. Inevit- 
ably the main topic of conversa- 
tion was Amstrads buy out of 
Sinclair. Nobody was able to tell 
me if Alan Sugar's purchase of 
all Sir Dive's trademarks inc- 
ludes that unmistakable shiny 
dome? Will the balding boffin 
now have to pay royalties on his 
pate or wear a toupe? I think we 
should be told! 

THE PUS 

f think we should also be told 
why the CES show was so fee- 
ble. The Spring preview of all 
that is electronic in home enter- 
tainment was meant to be a 
major bash. Instead no Amstrad 

— or any other hardware com- 
pany — no Actrvision, Arwla- 

14 CRASH June 1986 




Free Lunch 
and Loneliness 
at the CES 

There a re ma ny ways of obtain i ng bargain air travel but none 
so cheap as getting deported. Quite what I was doing in that 
state of undress at that time of the morning in central 
Stockholm is a story in itself, but as it has nothing st all to do 
with computers it will have to wait. This has been a packed 
month 

I was personally escorted from the plane at Heathrow 
under orders never to return — which I wiil — just in Urn* to 
thumb a lift from a passing executive coach- A strange 
recognition of faces dawned through the alcohol induced 
haze. Good God — the computer press! 



soft. Ocean, U.S. Gold. And 
where were ihe visitors? There 
was even talk of Jest minute 
advertising to open the hitherto 
exclusively trade show to the 
general oiks. It was so amply I 
had half an hour on a sun bed 
before anybody noticed ! 

One visitor who had obviously 
hoped to sneak in unannounced, 
late on the last day, was Sir Clive 
Sinclair {TM Amstrad Consumer 
Electronics pic) himself. How 
strange to suddenly find myself 
next to him in an Qlympia bar — 
a location matching its lack of 
comfort with extortionate pri- 
ces! Fumbling for the correct 
form of address for a Knight of 
the Chip I missed the chance to 
ask him a real question. Why 
was he there? Was it to suss out 
the competition in the cordless 
telephone or satellite receiver 
dish fields — both of which he is 
interested in? My guess is not. 
There were plenty of car radio 
aerials on display, so probably 
he was looking for the best to 
ftog from the boot of a C5 — 
considered by many to be a 
sound marketing tactic \ 



CLOUD LONELY 

I wandered damn near lonely as 



a Cloud. Some bright things to 
report such as Mastertonic cele- 
brating their second birthday in 
style with their chateau bottled 
brew — though sources inform 
me that gorgeous Alison Beas 
ley was up all night converting 
Carlsberg cans with sticky lab- 
els) M B u c-Gen were previewing 
Equinox, a new arcade adven- 
ture with superb graphics, and 
dropping hints about Ricky 
'Stainless' Steel — a hero who is 
definitely not in the Welly mode. 

Minronwht had the biggest 
stand for Biggies and poor P31 
Bitton and the gang were risking 
insanity from constant exposure 
to the film's irritating theme. 
Meanwhile Cheetah are follow 
ing up the spectacular Spec- 
Drum with a bargain basement 
sound sampler which digitally 
records noises for musical play 
beck, Inevitably some wag had 
programmed in a flatulent effect 
and was busy farting around up 
and down the scale. Thank God 
they've not developed a smell 
synthesiser. 

Round the corner Dave 'Cud- 
dly' Carlos was busy peddling 
porn — or should that be The 
Pawn. No, it's definitely the 
former — an adventurer's wet 
dream 1 It's also the second piece 
of software to get mentioned 
here thai will never appear on 




7fc* Dor* Sktm ©/ Computing: Qhhwi Paulino Sofh«™ Bandog* 
flirtf Am*ndm Barry. Prmvivmlr ontr thought tuhmbh lor thm ay** or 

duprand Coramodort DWIMM, thit MJuOTTOt/l IMp cut novr hm mjrfi 

■valJaMa to Spectrum ' 



the humble Spectrum Also on 
the Rainbird stand was Paula 
Byrne, still hung over from her 

farewell party at Melbourne 
House, two days before! 



BAXTERED! 

Further round the bend and 
Beyond with a decidedly dodgy 
video. No — not that sort but a 
poor quality preview of gomes 
10 come. Through the snow \ 
managed to decipher a new 
Mike Singleton mega -off errng. 
As I did so the previously ami- 
able Eligible Baxter pounced. 

'You've got a printer belong- 
1 ng to one of my ci ients, ' he said 
in claim- you -can't-deny tones . . 
, so 1 didn't deny it. indeed I do 
have an Ibteo LTR-1 Letter Qual- 
ity printer, as distributed by 



indeed 1 have been in- 
tending to review it but So we 
did a deal. Here, first, is the 
Hunter S Minaon review for this 
month. 

The LTR-1 is a good quality 
printer, capable of handling A4 
paper and producing pretty nifty 
results for the price via its test- 
ing. I can tell you. My only com- 
plaint is that it sounds like Sir 
Thomas Beech am's description 
ot a harpsichord! 

Which brings us to Mike's part 
of the deal. Obviously Saga can't 
sell the thing — stained as it is 
with spilt Bloody Mary — so 
they're going to offer this fine, 
albeit secondhand, device as a 
competition prize. Just write in, 
to the usual address, 'Third 
Bloody Mary on the Left, CRASH 
TOWERS, PO Box 10. Ludlow, 
Shropshire, SYS 1DBI remind- 
ing us just what Beecham's 
description was (and it wasn't 
'likeanLTR-1'l) 

First out of the cocktail shaker 
on 26th June gets the chance to 
print out junk ilk© this. 

And while I'm creating work 
for the post room, I've a request 
for help. There was a rumour 
round CES that {name removed 
at insistence of publisher's law- 
yers! is in fact a werewolf! 
Anybody offering proof of this 
leading industry figure's lycan- 
thropy will be richly rewarded! 

Right — that's enough of this 
drivel for now. It's that cocktail 
time of (he morning again and 
I've already overfilled my space, 

Next time, I'll be bringing you 
a Hewson attempt to get in The 
Good Lig Guide two months 
running. And if Graeme would 
tike me to fly to Chicago to cover 
the American CES — which has 
all the rajmataz this one lacked 
— I wouldn't be in the least 
surprised. What would surprise 
me is if he'd pay for a return 
ticket! 

Yours in food and ligging 
Hunter S Minaon 



£9.95 for AM5TRAD 464/664/6128, ATARI 64 K, BBC 32K, CBM 64. MSX 64K, SPECTRUM 46/1 28K 



THE PRICE OF MAGIK 



INDEPENDENT 
CREATURES 



INVENTIVE 
PUZZLES 




MANY 

POWERFUL 

SPELLS 



VIVID 

WITTY 

RESPONSES 



200 + 
LOCATIONS 



AS YOU RISE FROM SORCERER'S 

APPRENTICE TO SUPREME WIZARD 

THE PRICE OF MAGIK 

WILL KEEP YOU SPELLBOUND 



Send a large S A E for FREE POSTER and mail order details to 
Level 9 Computing. P O Box 39. Weston Super Mare. Avon, BS24 9UR 



Hfcft» 0£RALD »wkta a -i«n»- n*«*ork <>*;*»*>* »■* 




tanging in nether space, a 
region only recently dis- 
covered by the dimension 
dabblers, is Hangworld, a place 
of incredible wonders jus; wait- 
ing to be explored. And yes YOU 
have been chosen from a Nst of 
millions to belh& lucky soul who 
gets the chance 10 take part in s 

16 CRASH June 1936 



journey of adventure and excite- 
ment chan my out a brave new 
world. Not footed? Okay, you'd 
ben or have n short and sharp 
Ihen: Your government wishes 
to tnform you that you have 
been conscripted to serve in the 
military Cartographers Corps. 
Make your way immediately to 



the local Cartography Office 
where you will receive further 
information, fwture to conscript 
wilt result in dissolution You 
have been warned. 

So, you peck up your belong- 
ings and prepare for a stint in 
nether space under the watchful 
eves of the army. Nether space 
is the place where boys become 
men and men become dead. A 
rather hefty chunk of spa; 
designated for your exploration 
— no less than 385 sections — 
but only a ridiculously small 
amount of energy is allocated to 
your exploration craft, Nervous- 
ly sitting within (&RAID. you 
craft's familiar name, the trans- 
ducers hum and reality flickers 
out of view only to be replaced 
with Hangworld, a place of 
major danger, just waiting to 



destroy those who 
there. 

As Cartographer Private, your 
Cartographer's Handbook expl- 
ains, you have been allocated an 
area of Hangworld and must 
explore as much of it a s you ca n . 
Such exploration is rather ex- 
pensive, owing to the large 
amount of energy used by the 
reconnaissance craft in your 
command. Consequently, re 
cruds are encouraged lo find 
and colled energy crystals that 
are lo be found around Hang- 
world. As the reconcraft comes 
into the immediate vicinity of a 
power jewel, its plasmagrabs 
are automatically activated and 
the crystal is collected and con- 
verted into pure energy. 

Sitting within your craft, thg 
v lew of the outside world comes 
via a computer monitor — an 
image showing the surrounding 



S*P*hN*D*hZ»Z*Y 



j- 





"Spindiay Is one of the 
most addictive games I've 
ever played on the Spec- 
trum The game rates high 
on originality owing to 
some very nice features, 
such as changing shape*, 
speed control and very fost 
changes in viewing angle 
— of co ii r so all these m*a nt 
that the sound had to suf- 
fer, but the writers still 
managed to get in soma 
good effects whenever 
possible I loved trundling 
around the area and 
seeing what all the places 
in this strange world look- 
ed like All the other little 
features are very well ani- 
mated — the lifts are etpe- 

good 
one of the fast* 
games I've played, and 
nicking between 
ens is very smooth El* 
Dreams' latest release win 
keep all sorts of people 
attached to it for ages Buy 
it. and see H you're one of 
then 



section from above with GER 
ALD displayed on screen. Obv- 
iously, the image presented to 
you is computer interpreted. 



and as such is a bit lacking in 
detail, though there's enough 
visual information for you to 
negotiate the obstacles that 
encumber progress The scan- 
I quite a versatile bit of 
equipment and its viewpoint can 
be rotated through lour different 
vantage points. This is a handy 
feature if the craft is out of view 
behind some Hangworld scen- 
ery If GERALD is guided off 
view, then the scanner automa- 
tically flips to another section 

Controlling GERALD should 
mi present too many problems, 
even for a rookie cartographer 
Four directional controls are 
supplied to propel GERALD al- 
ong the ground. While GERALD 
is really designed for terra firma, 
it's possible to take lo the air, 
though gravity quickly returns 
you lo land. The fire button 
activates GERALD'S turbo unit 
which greatly increases your 
maximum speed. With a little 
practice, you can use the many 
inclines and ramps in Hang- 
world as jump off points for 
acrobatic feats — such manoe- 
uvres are important if you are to 
map out the entire sector ihai 
has been allocated to you and 
GERALD, 

GERALD has polymorph cap- 
abilities. At a mere keypress the 
person m the driving seat can 
change GERALD'S form into a 
ball, tetrahedron or gyroscope- 
Each incarnation has its own 
Silar quirks when it comes 
response to the controls, and 




though no one form has any 
strong advantage over the ot- 
hers, personal choice usually 
soon decides on one of the three 
you'll stick with. 

Another aid to exploration is 
the iift system to be found ar- 
ound Hang world. Left by an 
ancient crvilisation long sincr 
departed, the system comprises 
a number of lift activator pads 
each bearing an insignia Wan- 
der over one of these and all the 
lifts bearing that insignia are 
activated, Only two different 
types of lifts can he activated al 
once, and a scanner at the bot- 
tom left hand side of the view- 
screen shows which lifts are 
operative. 

Another handy on-screen 




Well thank heavens for 
that! Electric Dreams have 
finally put out a good 
Spectrum product. Spin- 
duay almost makes ui 
the crime of releasing Win 
nearly but not 
quite? S realty is 

very good indeed and Is 
even original to some 
t, though it does look 
lice it was ultimately ins- 
pired by Marble Macr 
The control, animation and 
graphics ate all lop hole, 
especially the 30 effect 
that adds ■ new slant on 

While it's immediately gr- 
eat fun to play, there's a lot 
»n 5; to keep any 

Spectrum gamester glued 
to the screen. Overall a 
game that is not worth 
missing 




window reveals how many sec- 
tions remain unmapped Press- 
ing the map key draws up a 
screen which details the sec- 
tions of Hangworld which have 
already been mapped out. 

While Hangworld is under 
exploration, a time indicator 
shows how much time remains 
before GERALD'S energy supply 
runs out- Extra time can be won 
by collecting power jewels, but a 
large chunk of exploring time is 
lost if GERALD is guided off the 
edge of a section into the ob- 
livion in which Hangworld is 
suspended, as an enormous 
amount of energy is needed to 
transport you and GERALD beck 




Brilliant! Spindizzy is by 
far the best maze game I've 
played on my Spectrum 
The graphics are superb, 
and the over responsive 
nets of the controls realty 
adds to the game It repre- 
sents a really big challenge, 
and plays very well Indeed. 
I don't think I can criticise it 
much, apart from the fact 
that it would have been 
even better if the character 
set had been altered. Beg* 
inner 's levels, payability, 
addict i veness. good pack 

rig: Spindi2zy is a really 
game, Buy it I think it 
represents State of the Art 
on the Spectrum toda v 






10 safety Falling off ledges or 
leaping ramps over-enthustas- 
ucally also results in energy 
losses. 

Should time run out, you are 
regenerated on Eanh only to be 
sent back to Hangworld once 
more to restart the mission. If, 
however, you return with your 
allocated section completely 
surveyed the Government a\- 
lows you to resume the life of 
Private Citizen rather than Priv- 
ate Cartographer, and an Hon- 
ourable Discharge from the Car' 
tography Corps is your reward, 




ible 
Joystick 
Keyboard play : respon 

Use of colour: neat 
Iraphlcs Stunnii 

erm . . pardon 
Skill levels 
Screens : 385 

A very n 
lame — a very neat v*i i 
apping 
antly done 

Use of computer 32% 

Graphics 94% 

Payability 94% 

Getting started 91% 
Addictive qualities 94% 

Value for money 91 % 

Overall 93% 






CRASH June 1986 17 



S3— —— «rs5sss-«- fc 



rtd so the sags of the 
j' /HJ Magic Knight continues, 
■ with David Jones' follow 
up to finders Keepers end Speti- 
bound 

Ktitgfit Tyme picks up where 
Spellbound left off. Having 
released the wizard Gimbal from 
a nasty predicament at the end 
of Spellbound, Magic Knight is 
free to potter back to 13th 
Century England and the 
comforts of home. However, MK 
is understandably exhausted 



Producer: Mastertronic 
Retail price: £2.99 
Author: David Jones 





after his ordeals and his mental 
concentration is flagging some- 
what. In an off moment ne mis- 
casts the spell lo take him home, 
and la and behold, he finds him 
self transported not to Medi- 
aeval England as he had 
expected, but onto the deck of 
an interaaiactic star cruiser in 
the 25th Century, 

The culture shock alone 
should have been enough to 
finish off poor old Magic Knight 
once and for all He's a resilient 
fellow, mind, and he has the 
good fortune to be presented 
with a Daiaeube once he arrives 
on the space ship which helps 
him to acclimatise to the new- 
found surroundings. Datacube 
Of no Datacube. Magic Knight is 
singularly unimpressed with life 
on a sophisticated starcruiser 
and longs for the comforts of 
home — the odd bout of bubonic 
pj»gue, rusty armour in the 
winter end being hungry a" the 








is 



•JIM*G*H« 



U 





&*&£&& 



"I stilt play Finders 
Keeper, at home so I was 
very pleased to piny this 
one. This has to b* the 
mo$1 outstanding piece of 
cheep software I've seen 
since I started reviewing 
for CRASH, two years ago 
Perhap$ all 128K software 
will be like this . . , but I very 
much doubt it, I can't really 
see myself getting bored 
with this one for a long 
time as it is very compel- 
ling The graphics ire 
excellent, all the characters 
are detailed and well 
animated and the back 
grounds are very colourful. 
My only gripe is that there 
is a bit of colour clash. The 
sound Is also excellent a 
tune plays throughout the 
game and there are some 
spot effects, I strongly 
recommend this game to 
all 126 owners — and the 
46K version will be snip a$ 
well You couldn't hope to 
find a better piece of 
budget software " 



time. He's understandably 
anxious to Find his way off the 
Starship USS Pisces. 

This is not a simple task. He 
must find all the pieces of a time 
machine so he can assemble it 
and travel in his own time. The 
Paradox Police are waiting thirty 
days Into MK's future, so there's 
a time limit in the game — if our 
ttn suited hero doesn't locate the 
Tyme Guardians and gel beck 
into the past quickly enough, 
he'll end up in dink. Five Eyed 
Jack, king of the Space Pirates 
must also be avoided according 
to the inlay — he's a really nasty 
piece of work. A close watch 
must also be kepi on Magic 
Knight's energy and happiness 
levels, for if they fall too low. he 
expires. 

The first problem to be solved 
involves getting the human 
crew members to acknowledge 
your exisiience, Officially, Magic 
Knight is a stow- away, so in 
order to ingratiate himself with 
the crew of the USS Pisces be 
must somehow obtain an identi- 
fication card — they're only 




" Hooray! The follow up to 
one of my favourite game* 
of '86 arrives, and a very 
good game it b too The 
Wintlowmaticn rs still an 
excellent piece of program- 
ming and adds to the game 
fust as. if not more than the 
original system. The 
graphics are vary good, 
and the sound is superb 
For £2.96, it's brilliant value 
for money, I think Master 
Ironic had better get lots 
and lots of copies of this 
run, 'cause methinks its 
gonna be a hit. " 



prepared to hear the voice of 
officialdom. The droid members 
of the crew and Derby 4 — the 
Transputer — aren't quite as 
snobby as the human con- 
tingent, if you ask them nicely 
they may even help you get the 
ID card , . This isn't much use on 
its own, as it is blank. MK must 
find a camera and some film and 
by being creepy to the robots on 
board, he has to arrange to have 
his photo taken, and then add 
the snapshot to the ID card 
which then confers an auth 
antic' identification to the 
wearer Once this is done Magic 
Knight can start giving orders to 
the crew members and begin 
bossing them about — very 
satisfying after their early 
rudeness. When the pilot has 





" Km is the first 

'proper* game on the 128 
and I must say that I was 
very impressed. I thought 
the 12SK version would 
just have more locations, 
but David Jones has cert- 
ainly made full use of the of 
the iZfiK's features. The 
game is a very good follow 
up to the mini-Spectrum 
games, and combines 
some old ideas with some 
new ones. The thing that 
did impress me was (he 
vary elde wurlde music: 
this suits the game perfect- 
ly and doesn't ask to be 
turned down as on some 
games I still love the way 
the Knight bounces around 
and can pester the little 
innocent creatures th.it 
roam around, by asking 
them to push off or go to 
sleep, The game again uses 
the beautrful windowing 
techniques that were 
employed in Spellbound. I 
would say that this game 
will well satisfy any 128K 
owner who's moaning 
about the 128K software 
machine, and at the price, 
'you can't go wrong 

! 



been provided with the appropr- 
iate equipment, Magic Knight 
can order him to drive round the 
galaxy — and a neat space-flight 
sequence pops onto the Bridge 
viewscreen during tlighi. 

The player interfaces with the 
game via an improved version 
of the user friendly window/ 
menu system that was christ- 
ened Windowmation in Spelt 
bound. Using either ihe joystick 
or keyboard, commends are 
given by selecting options from 
a series of nested menus that 
window onto the screen. A wide 
range of activities is catered for, 
including examining objects 
and characters in the game, 
giving orders, reading things, 
calling up status reports and so 
on. New options appear on the 
main menu as the game pro 
grasses and problems are 
solved. 

The crew of the USS Pisces is 
an untidy mob — objects litter 
the decks. Some of these are 
helpful when it comes to solving 
the problems buried in the 
game, while others can be used 
to barter wii h the crew of i h e sta r 



cruiser. Magic Knight must 
somehow locale the mythical 
Tyme Guardians if he can and, if 
indeed they even exist, they'll 
supply him with his ticket home. 

Sixteen separate characters 
can be found in the game, and 
there are nearly fifty loe<i 
far the USS Pisces to visit Nqt 
all the planets are explorable, 
but the habitable ones are 
accessible vie the transporter — 
once il has been fixed Magic 
Knight must also get the co- 
ordinates right on the transport- 
er or else his little tin molecules 
will be artistically splattered 
across, the cosmos. Most of the 
pa ns of i he t ime mac h ine can be 
round on the planets, and some 
starbases contain communic- 
ation centres which provide use 
fu I information. 

Apart from the problem- 
solving aspect of the game, 
there's a fair old strategic 
dement, rt's vital to keep Magic 
Knight's strength up. but the 
player afso needs to monitor the 
status of the other characters in 
the game and keep an eye on the 
condition of the Starship rtse/f 

Don't forget — if Magic Knight 
never escapes from the confines 
of the USS Pisces, there wont 
ever be another Magic Knight 
game.... 



CRITICISM 



Control keys: A up/jump, Z 
down, N left, M right, 
SPACE fire 
Joystfdt: Kempston, 
Cursor. Interface 2 
Keyboard play: responsive 
Use of colour: pretty, and 

tidily done 

Graphics; cute little 
characters, nice 
backgrounds 
Sound: continuous jolly 

Skill levels: one 
Screens: 50 (25 in the 4SK 
version) 

General rating: Another 
excellent arcade adventure 
from David Jones, 
Stunningly good value for 
money, 

Use of computet 90% 

Graphics 88% 

Payability 91% 

Getting started c.ii . 

Addictive qualities 33% 

Value for money 98% 

Overall 94% 



CRASH June 1986 19 



different, as 



GAR 



i 1 



comicboo 



mm®*-* ^ 



snf&&° 



ecmofoiN^^ 



BSSSB8- 



Jwl>ld. meek end very wimp- 
#WIish reporter Kevin Oliver 
* * awakes outside a hospital 
with absolutely no memory St 
oil, an empty camera in his hand 
and some small change- Obvi' 
ously bedazed by his situation, 
the puzzled reporter searches 
his synopses and finds three 
words: two of them make up his 
name, while the third is pu«i 
ingh/ meaningless — 'KWAH' 
As any amnesiac reporter 
would, Kevin says the puzzling 
word and Kablamml, what was 
previously a wimp is now a 
muscle encumbered man of 
steel dressed in red with s range 



" Apart from the innova- 
tive stuff. Redhawk is rep- 
lete with all the feature? 
that ire needed in ■ com- 
petent but more traditional 
adventure game. Redhawk 
is easily accessible and 
should appeal to people 
who are only interested in 
arcade games, at wall as 
hardened adventurers The 
game really is something 
new in the adventure war 
Id — it has lost the ele- 
ments of drudgery that 
many arcadesters accuse 
adventure games of poss- 
essing As such any Spec- 
trum owner would be well 
advised to keep an eye out 
for this novel release The 
plot and actual game is full 
of humour and ft is a very 
relaxing way of passing 
time with your computer 
Anyway, it's great fun tc 
shout KWAH' when you're 
in a tight spot. I can't pro- 
mise it'll turn you into a 
muscle rippling mega hero, 
but it should raise the odd 
eyebrow from anyone in 
ear shot 



of super powers as matching 
accessories And then Redhawk 
remembers his mission to hin- 
der the course of evil upon 
planet Earth. Another quick 

20 CRASH June 1986 



KWAH later and Redhawk; is 
back into his civilian identity. 

After a bit of interaction with 
the surrounding scenery and a 
tittle weeny read of the inlay, the 
problem to be solved soon 
becomes frighteningty appar- 
ent. Some incredibly naughty 
person has decided to bomb the 
local nuclear reactor, If the 
device deposited there does 
manage to pop its cork then it's 
goodbye to at (east three quart- 
ers or Kevin's home town, 
Obviously something must be 
done, and the only effective sol- 
ution seems to be a Redhawk 
one. 

Despite Redhawk' s rather 
impressive physical endow- 
ments, the answer to this part- 
icular problem doesn't depend 
totally upon brawn Brain is the 
major talent needed to prevent 
the surrounding countryside 
being littered with bits Of power 
station The first thing to do is 
get a job at the Daily News as a 
freelance photographer This 
gives Kev a supply of money as 
long as the Ed iter get a supply of 
crime piocies — quite an easy 
task when you're secretly a 
trendy superhero-around-town 

Six hours are available to 
Kevin/Redhawk before the 
bomb goes blam. To solve the 
problem of the exploding power 
station, our reddened hero must 
first sort out the mystery of who 
actually planted the device. As 



different characters are encoun- 
tered and interrogated a verita- 
ble web of intrigue becomes 
apparent. Including the super 
hero himself, there are six main 
characters in the game, plus four 
supervillains who hinder the 
crusader along the way to truth 
and justice. 

To complicate matters, most 
of the people around the place 
have a motive to destroy the 
power station and it's up to 
Redhawk, the great detective, to 
decipher who is behind this 
rather dangerous malarky. Once 
that's solved, then a way to 
prevent a rather nasty mess in 
the power station should be- 
come apparent 

Like all superheroes, Redhawk 
finds his doings Closely moni- 
tored by the media, and Red- 
hawks popularity rating fluc- 
tuates according the number of 
criminals he apprehends or al- 
lows to escape. If he gets really 
unpopular, no-one will talk to 
him — which makes solving the 
mystery rather difficult, but if 
Redhawk spends too long bask- 
ing in glory and apprehending 
wrong-doers, he won't have 
time to investigate the dastardly 
plot that threatens the antrra 
city A fine balance has to be 
maintained throughout the 
game.,. 



" The cartoon style graphics add tremendous 
atmosphere to Redhawk, and are very quick on the 
draw Speed in adventure games is fairly rare, but 
Redhawk keeps the plot and action on the move by 
using key wo rd en t r y f ro m a m en u o n th e bo tl o m of the 
screen — a great aid to one-finger typists like me? 
Multiple commands can be entered, making the whole 
game less of the usual typing exercise. Interaction with 
other players is difficult at Hrst but becomes easier 
with practice, Being in charge of a costumed superhero 
is quite a responsibility — but not one to be taken too 
seriously in this, game. After all. he does wear his 
underpants over his trousers! Have some fun, go say 
"KWAH". wear the badge and have a go at being a 
Superhero 



fferf/rsw* marks quite a dep- 
arture from the usual format of 
adventures adopted by most 
software companies nowadays. 
including those produced by 
Melbourne themselves. Devel- 
oped by Simon Price and Mike 



" Being an arcade freak, t 
don't often get the chance 
to play adventure games 
let alone comment on 
them, so I was quite ple- 
ased when I found this one 
in my In Tray. It took me a 
1 while to get the hang 
of Redhawk as it contains a 
lot of revolutionary ideas 
and new concepts in input 
and output The game itself 
wasn't instantly playable 
but then again to me, most 
adventures aren't! After a 
few games, however. I'd 
really got into the spirit of 
Redhawk. The screen lay- 
out is very effective and the 
graphics used in the comic 
strip, although not Ian las 
tkally exerting, are very 
well drawn and arid excel- 
lence to an already good 
game Is-suinq commands 
is fairly straightforward so 
it Is never really a pr ob l em 
getting Kevin fledhawk to 
do the things you want him 
to do Generally I quite 
enjoyed playing Redhawk 
as it ts good fun. I'm not 
sure quite how long 1 
would play it — for me. as 
an arcade gamester, it 
wasn't all that compell- 
ing . " 



Lewis under the name of Sil- 
houette Software Systems, the 
whole project is an extension of 
Advsntum Games on the Ams- 
tmd, a book the two lads wrote 
while they were st ili at polytech- 
nic. The best way of describing 
Rodhawk is as an interactive 
comic strip — the way the game 
works is hardly surprising as 
Simon Prioa scripts a comic strip 
by the name of Retffox The 
main idea behind Redhawk, and 
principal difference between the 
game and most other adven- 



) I 





tures, is that although it's no( an 
arcade game, all the action lakes 
place in real time with the situ 
ation and characters constantly 
being updated as text is input by 
the user. With a set of cartoon 
frames running across the top, 
the screen action is shown in 
classic comic book style as 
Kevm.'Redhawk obeys the pley- 
er's commands Each new com- 
mand entered by the player 
affects the cartoon frame on the 
right of the screen, and the 
frames scroll to the left, making 
a mini cartoon strip which is 
continually added to as the 
game unfolds 

Interacting with other charac- 
ters is fun, as speech bubbles 
superimpose themselves on the 



Overall 91% 



action frames and speech scrolls 
itself across, Using the SAY 
command opens a little cloud- 
like speech bubble above our 
hero and text pours out lor the 
benefit of anyone on screen who 
may be m listening range A!) the 
while a real time clock shows 
whet the time is as the minutes 
to doom slowly tick away. A very 
competeni attempt at 

multitasking. 

Though wimpish. Kevin has 
access to enormous power at 
the mere whisper of 'KWAH'. 
That power is far from infinite, 
and there's a imle meter there, 
on screen, to prove it. Such 
superhero activities as flying 
and fighting sap away the old 
super powers until — KWAH' — 
the poor chap is japped back 
into his human form for a little 
rest and recuperation The 
Superhero batteries are slowly 
recharged while Redhawk is m 
Kevin mode. 

The main problem with the 
Kevin incarnation is his inability 
(o move around easily — he has 
to rely on taxis and the tram 
system. The Dally Mews is a bit 
of a tight outfit as no matter how 
many receipts Kev collects, 
Nigel Barlow, the mean Editor, 
won't give back any money on 
expenses: that really takes all 
the fun out of journalism. The 
only way to fund travel is to sell 
photos to the paper as the tran- 
sport facilities cost a rather 
excessive pound a trip I Aa the 
plevet becomes acquainted with 
the local geography it's possible 
to save money by FLVing to 
destinations in caped crusader 
mode, but this uses up Super- 
energy. 

CRASH June 1986 21 






6-B'&60UttD T BE (N Htt- 



" 10 levels of fun make this torture excellent value 
for money. Nova rating. Definitely one of those 
"just another go' games. Game of the month 
February" - Computer Gamer 

The most compulsive game I've ever 
played. If you don't buy it you'll never 
Know what you've missed." says Gary 
Penn. Zzap! 64. Gold Medal Award. 
97% overall. 

COMMODORE 64 MSX 

AMSTRAD SPECTRUM 








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ALIEN HIGHWAY 



Producer: Vortex 
Retail price: £7.95 
Author: Marc Haigh- 
Hutchinson 



Alien Highway was written 
by popular demand' as a 
sequel to Highway 
Encounter and is a souped up, 
modified version of the original 
game. 

This time your target is the 
A hen Empire, a vast complex 
which is essential to the aliens' 
survival. Once again, you are in 
control of a drokJ, or Vorton, but 
this time there are no lives — a 
single robot is supplied end it 
has to be recharged from power 
points along the highway, 8S 
contact with the aliens or their 
weapons taps vital energy. 

The ultimate aim of the game 
is to shove a might ity powerful 
explosive device — The Terra- 
Iron — ail the way down the 
highway to the gates of the Alien 
HO where it can detonate and rid 
(he world of nasties (until the 
next game, at least}. The Vorton 
accelerates forwards at great 
•peed but slows down quite 
slowly if left to its own devices, 
so some nifty control manipu- 
lating is called for to make it 
behave according to your 
wishes- As before, the Vorton 
has to be pointed in the right dir- 
ection and then moved. 

The Aliens have learnt their 
lesson from Highway Encounter 
— the road to the E m pi re is litter - 
ed with obstacles and alien nast- 



ies. To add to the fun, the edges 
of the high we y ere elecinfied 
and burns clumsy Vorton touch- 
ing them to a frazzle. Once 
again, certain objects on the 
roadway can be moved by firing 
at them with your lasers and 
then used to block the path of 
some aliens, ensuring a safe 
passage for the Vorton and 
Terratron. 

'Hairy lasers' are still fitted as 
standard equipment on Vortons, 
and make suitably short work of 
aliens. En route, the Terratron 
must be re-charged seven times 
so that it's in tip-top condition 
when it arrives at the Alien 
Empire: keep an eye out for the 
Regeneration Stations, 

The status area at the bottom 
of the screen shows how low 
your energy levels are getting, 
the t ime that remains in which to 
complete the mission and how 
many of the seven re-genera- 
tions your Terratron has been 
given. Without the full comple- 
ment of regenerations the bar- 
rier guarding the alien complex 
is impassable. 

The new highway spans thirty 
screens, as before, but this time 
there's a random element which 
governs the way the game sets 
up — map-makers won't have it 
all their own way' 



CRITICISM 



•" Yea hi This one is very nice: 
it forms ■ worthy successor to 
Highway Encounter. The graph 



Trundle, twndt*, trundl* go*s th* Vorton Thvrm't « nmwty 
on* a y dmortiTer lurking just down rh* md. Tim* to think 
aturtut using fh* Hairy Lasers' 




kcs are excellent, 
beautifully smoothly Alien 
Highway is a real pleasure to 
play; the level of difficulty has 
been pitched just right to make 
it frustrating, yet fabulousfy 
addictive, I can't realty find 
much fault with it. A tune could 
have improved it a little, but the 
spot effects are satisfactory and 
trie payability arid addictive- 
ness make up for any aural 
deficiency. " 

• " Vortex's fast release, High- 
way Encounter, was brilliant 

Now the foifow*up has arrived 
end can they keep up the stan- 
dard? I'm glad to say they can. 
Although the game looks like its 
forerunner and is based on the 
same idea, I tike it. Vortex have 
chucked in a new storyline and a 
few new sprites to contend with, 
You stiff have to advance up the 
highway, and the game is tun 
end challenging. Graphically, it 
is excellent with lots of nice 
touches like the shrinking aliens. 
Getting the hang of moving 




around can be a bit tricky at first, 
but after a few games you 
should find it easy enough to 
control your droid. Some people 
may say that Alien Highway Is a 
bit too much of a copy of High- 
way, but as feres I'm concerned 
the game is ace, and fun to play 

#" I was a great fan of Highway 
Encounter. This is basically the 
same game as its predecessor 
although there have been some 
great improvements made to 
the gameplay. Graphically there 
are a lot of similarities, but it's 
logical to use the same sort of 
Aliens I suppose The characters 
are full of detail and well anim- 
ated. While (he backgrounds are 
not as varied as I would have 
liked, they are certainly well 
drawn. The sound effects are 
minimal: only the odd beep now 
and then when you lose a life or 
zap a nasty. If you liked Highway 
Encounter then you'll certainly 
like this — if you haven't seen 
HE. then I strongly recommend 
this game. The onh/ problem 
that I can possibly forses is that 
it might be a little easy. " 



COMMENTS 



Control keys: A decelerate, 

accelerate, K left. L right, 

SPACE/M/Zfire. P pause, G quit 

Joystick: Kempston, 

Protek^AGF, Interface 2 

Keyboard play: straightforward 

and responsive 

Use of colour: sparse 

Graphics: tidy and well 

animated 

Sound: spot effects only 

Skill levels: one 

Screens: 3Q 

Generai rating : Another one for 

Highway Encounter fans 

everywhere 



Use of computer 


69% 


Graphics 


87% 


Payability 


87% 


Getting started 
Addictive qualities 


89% 


89% 


Value for money 


88% 


Overall 


88% 



lllllllillllfl 



OOOOOOO 



CRASH June 1986 23 



.jj ftkitfHgi 




Producer: Addictive 

Retail price: £8.95 
Author: Siegfried Kurtz 



Addictive Games are best 
known for simulation 
games such as the 
monster- selling Football 

Manager, but this new release 
shows the Bournemouth-based 
company taking a completely 
new direction. 

Kirel features a cute frog-eyed 
character who hops around the 
seventy 3D screens that makeup 
his world in search of bombs to 
defuse and objects to collect, 
Kirel can only climb one step a! a 
time on a screen, so he must pick 
up and drop blocks as he goes 
along, building staircases and 
bridges as they are needed, You 
ca n only move to the next screen 
when all the bombs on the 
current level have been defused, 

Each leva) has to be complet- 
ed within a certain time-limit ■ — 
the amount of time remaining is 
indicated by a fuse trailing from 
the floor, which smoulders 
quietly away. If Kirol doesn't 
move fast enough and runs out 
of lime, the little marauding 
meringue explodes. Contact 
with patrolling monsters saps 
energy, and can also lead to 
death. 

Once all the bombs on a 
screen have been defused by 
jumping on them, an exit icon 
shows pointing the way to get 
onto the next screen. If Kirel 
leaves the screen inside the time 
limit the score is increased. 

The Bionic Battle Bun, as he is 
known to his friends in the 
patisserie business, roams 
around the screens searching 
for cakes to eat and arrow blocks 
to collect. Monsters are allergic 
to cake and era destroyed if Kirel 
touches one while he has a cake 
in his inventory. Arrow blocks 



Kirxtt'* bokt'ng » block, *i you smn tell by the icon in the top 
fight of thu screen Hrfier* s hm going to put it down? Fime't 

running out. . . 




Bomgf Tnm Bionic ftattfa Bun l**pi through rftt mir on th* 
tvtf to * bit of bomb ditposmt 



give Kirel another section of 
bridge, while bags of sweeties 
•nd sugar replenish his energy 
levels. Little bails give Kirel 
more time to complete the cur- 
rent level. 

Kirel has four lives per screen, 
and the status area on the 
bottom left-hand side of the 
screen shows the number of 
lives, cakes and bridge building 
units he has as well as his 
energy level. 

Other useful items to keep 
your bulging eves peeled for are 
cubes, which destroy immov- 
able walls and pyramids, and 
transporter networks represent- 
ed by shimmering curtains or 
circles, which can be used to 
move Kirel around the screen. 



CRITICISM 



"Well, well! Addictive have 
been relatively quiet since the 
golden oldie Football Manager, 
so it's nice to see them publish- 



% 




ing such a fun puzzle game. 

More or lees everything (except 
soundl has been exploited to 
the full to bring idea to fruition. 
The star of the game Jerks ■ little 
bh, but other things make up lor 
this. Generally the graphics are 
nicely represented, but the 
game's reel high » Its pi ayabili 
ty. I think it hi realty good, dean, 
puzzle solving fun. The tide 
screen flickers a lot, but the 
effect is there, and rt works 
quite well. Addictive and fun to 
play. Not worthy of a Smash, 
But well worth a good lew day's 
attention. " 

• " Kirel is definitely one of the 
most original games ideas 
around on the Spectrum at the 
moment end contains some 
excellent 3D graphics. At first 
the gameplay ts very slow, hut I 
found it was re/ativefy easy to 
et used to end suited the cute 
little character you control. The 
time bomb time limit is a very 
effective idee end metes you 
hurry around with more urgency 
than a counter would encour- 
age. The graphics are set in 
great 3D perspective, although 
some situations seemed a tittle 
awkward to work out on the later 
levels. The other characters are 
well drawn and the baddies 
smoothly animated. The only 
thing f missed was a tittle tune to 
listen to, but that hardly counts 
against the game. Kirel is a brilli- 
ant game which anyone can get 
straight into playing. Definitely 
worm buying if you want some- 
thing that is a little different from 
the 'run of the miff Spectrum 
software, " 

•" I was initially very impres- 
sed, but after a few goes the 
novelty of the pretty graphics 
wore off and I was left with a 
fairly mediocre 'jumping around 
collecting things' game. The 
graphics are very good and the 
Characters are wall drawn, 
although a little jerky when they 
move. The sound is limited but 
adequate I suppose Controlling 




your blob or whatever it is, is 
difficult at first but after a few 
practice games it becomes 
second nature. It look me a long 
time to gel into, but once you I 
got On with it, I found it fairly 
playable and addictive, alth- 
ough it isn't the sort of game I'd 
get hooked on. Not a bad game 
— it'll lake a lot of determination 
to complete. " 



COMMENTS 



Control keys: pick up/put 

down, 1 rotetfl right, 2 turn 

round, 3 rotate left, SPACE to 

pause, ENTER (o continue, B 

build bridge, E up, S to play 

game, T to play training game. 

VT abort game 

Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, 

Interface 2 

Keyboard play: no problems 

Use of colour: monochromatic 

screens 

Graphics: very neat 3D 

platforms 

Sound: spot effects only 

Skill lews: two modes, training 

and play 

Screens: 70 

General rating: A neat 

arcade /puzzle gams that's quite 

compelling 



Use of computer 


33% 


Graphics 


86% 


Payability 


B5% 


Getting started 


84% 


Addictive qualities 


87% 


Value for money 


83% 


Overall 


m% 



24 CRASH June 1986 



JOCK AND THE 
TIME RINGS 



Producer: Atlantis 

Retail price: £1,99 



Jodt, who bears an uncanny 
resemblance to Dusty Bin. 
is stuck in the wrong time 
zone. You must help him return 
to his own time by collecting 32 
time rings from each of the three 
time zones he visits. 

Before you can enter a new 
time *one you must give the 
correct password and this is 
only given to you once the 32 
rings from the previous time 
zone have been collected. Natur- 
ally this doesn't apply to the first 
zone or else you'd never get 
started. 

Each zone has a maze pro- 
tecting the time ring and Jock 
has to find his way around these 
mazes trying to collect the rings. 
He can move upwards, down- 
wards, left and right. He also 
possesses something called a 
speed booster. This enables 
Jock to put on an extra spurt of 
speed to escape from the Time 
Guardian, but the power which 
he is given at the beginning of 
the game and which depletes 
gradually as he moves around, 
goes down a lot quicker when 
Jock is using his speed booster. 
However, Jock's power pack is 
regenerated at the beginning of 
each time zone. 

Jock is not the only one inter- 
ested in the time rings, They ere 
also possessively guarded by 
the Guardian of the Rings who 
buzzes around the mazes in e 
variety of colourful disguises 
blocking the route to the rings. 
Any contact with the Guardian 
spells instant death for Jock. 
Well, actually it isn't instant as 
such because Jock is provided 
with nine lives at the start of the 
game. He loses a life every time 
he brushes against the various 
Guardians but he gains a life tor 



every five rings he manages to 
collect. To make matters worse 
Jock only has a certain amount 
of time in which to gain poss- 
ession of a ring because they 
become unstable in his pre- 
sence. If he takes too long to get 
around a maze then the radia- 
tion level in the ring becomes 
lethal and he loses a life. 

You can keep a check on 
Jock's progress by looking at the 
chart at the bottom or your 
screen This shows how much 
ene rgy Jock has left i n h is power 
pack. It also shows how many 
lives he has remaining and how 
many rings have been collected. 
You can also check the score: 
Points are scored for each ring 
collected depending on its 
colour. Extra points are scored 
for how much power Jock has 
left at the end of a zone. 

Once Jock has negotiated his 
way around onetime zone and 
collected 32 rings from it then he 
can move on to the next one. A 
password is flashed up onto the 
screen which gives you access 
to the next part of the game. 

The game ends when J ocfc h as 
completed all three lime zones 
and collected the required num- 
ber of time rings. It is then 
possible for him to return to his 
own time of 21 12 AD, no doubt 
for a refreshing game of the 
same name! 



CRITICISM 



• " Mot the usual type of jolly 
Atlantis software this, it would 
be quite easy to complete rf you 
had a couple of hours spare and 
a lot of patience, but to tell you 
the truth t couldn't stand this 
one (or more than twenty five 
minutes The graphics *re large 
but undetailed and quite messy- 
There are next to no sound 
effects, the meet you can hope 




tor during the game rtsaH is a 
beep every minute when there 
is a ring m your room or an 
etorwated burp when you lose a 
life. The one thing that pulfs this 
game way down be low avenge 
h it's speed, it « so slow as to be 
monotonous from the start. 
Even for its cheapo price tag I 
wouldn't recommend this game 
as it is BORING. " 



• " This game would just about 
be passable if it were played at 
high speed. Unfortunately it 
ploys ever so slowly end con- 
sequently becomes a real bore 
after the first one or two games. 
The graphics are big but uni- 
maginative and lack any detail 
and the sound boils down to a 
few burps. There are plenty of 
locations but they all look very 
simitar and it takes an eternity to 
slowly trundle round thgm ttt, 
The fact that it sells at two quid 
doesn't make it worth buying — 
there are a lot of better pro- 
grams available at the same 
price, " 

• " Another funny title for a 
budget game, but I'm afraid 
there isrr t much in Jock and the 
Tune Rings that hasn't appeared 
in any other budget game. It's 
very slow to play, even when 
you're moving in 'fast' mode. 
The characters tend to be too big 
to do anything detailed or accu- 
rate with, and the control is very 
heavy-handed, only permitting 
four-directional movement. This 
is a below average game. Jock 
looks as if he is a reject from One 
Man and his Oroid, and the 
passages and the codes requir 
ed for the next stage remind me 
of that game, I couidn'l find 



anything special in it apart from 
the nice character set perhaps — 
but that's hardly a great selling 
point! " 




COMMENTS 



Control keys; definable 

Joystick: none 

Keyboard play: reasonable 

Use of colour: average 

Graphics: big, fat and jolly 

Sound: crummy 

Skill levels: one 

Screens: three time zones with 

31 rooms in each 

General rating: a very boring 

and slow collect em up. 



Use of computer 


53% 


Graphics 


38% 


Ptoyability 


31% 


Getting started 


se% 


Addictive qualities 


32% 


Value for money 


35% 


Overall 


32% 




CRASH June 1986 25 





Producer: Ocean 
Retail price: £7 95 
Author; Kaos 



A race Of reptilian aliens — 
the Visitors — threatens 
to take over the world A 
resistance movement has been 
formed to try to prevent this, 
which is whore you come In: 
playing Michael Donavan, fear- 
less leader of the resistance 
movement who aims to destroy 
the a 1 1 ens s i n a le handed 

Having sneaked aboard the 
Visitor's Mothership he scuttles 
round, planting bombs in key 
locations. However, Diana — 
leader of the alien horde — has 
spotted your presence and is 
dot rig he r best to make su re you 
don't succeed. Devilish Diana 
has commanded her army of 
robots to search you out and put 
a stop to your plan. 

Four types of robots have to 
be dealt with. Surveillance 
robots follow Donavan around 
the ship reporting back to Diana. 
Maintenance robots scuttle 
along the floor of the space craft 
fixing things while cleaner rob- 
ots hover at head height tidying 
up. But it's the deadly security 
robots that Michael Donavan 
must really keep his eyes peeled 
for. They can be destroyed with 
a bolt from the laser gun, and 
points ere won for obliterating 
them r but ammunition is severe- 
iy limited. 



The robots operate on high 
voltage electricity and contact 
with them gives Donavan a nas- 
ty Shock- Encounters with robots 
don't kill instantly, but they do 
put a strain on the heart. After 
too many collisions with robots, 
your heart gives out. 

Windows at the bottom of the 
screen monitor progress. A 
green screen to the left shows 
massages being sent to the ro- 
bots from Diana and helps you 
keep track of the robotic hot- 
spots. The middle screen inc- 
ludes a clock and under this the 
score is displayed. A lightning 
bolt reveals the laser's firepower 
and a cardiogram bleeps reas- 
suringly at the start of the game, 
getting more irregular as Mich- 
ael's heart is damaged. 

Function keys are located on 
the right of the status area From 
the top and moving clockwise 
the keys are as follows: a} allows 
the game to be paused or aba- 
ndoned; b) talis up informal ion 
on locations in the ship; c) al- 
lows you lo Jay your explosives, 
4) is the log-off button, used to 
return to the game; e) displays 
the security code in the green 
window while fj stores informa- 
tion about the red-dust formula 
that Earth has been developing 
to kill off the aliens. 

Number keys to the right of 
the function keys, like all the 
numbers in the game, ere in 
base six because the reptilian 
aliens only have six fingers' 

Every now and then ihe hero 
comes up against impenetrable 
security doors that can only be 
opened by inserting the correct 
code. However, he can move 
from level to level via teleport 
pads- To use these, sta nd him on 




one and press up to move up a 
level or down to move down a 
level 

Will Michael Donavan man- 
age to outwit the alien invaders, 
or will we have to sit through 
another series of y on the tele- 
vision to see if good triumphs 
over evil 7 



CRITICISM 



m "V has finally arrived and 
after all the hype tha game 
hasn't turned out to be too bad, 
Tha alien's mother ship is a 




Look i likmOonnvan has got a siightly imp**M*bl* problem 
on hit funds an thm top dmck at tbm Alien Matherihtp . . . 



pretty drab place apart from the 
odd console room here and 
there, and a few laboratories if 
you can find them. I was vary 
disappointed to find that there 
were Iota of enemies on the ship 
but none of them were Visitors : 
Instead than are these pesky 
little robots that literally gat 
under your feet and don't eng- 
age in proper combat at all. The 
finish of vie game it vary good 
and you'll spend ■ long time on 
it if you play it fully Unfortu- 
nately the writerfs} seem to 
have left out the TV tie-in, and 
thought up a game all of their 
own. Not so much for fans of the 
taffy series »S for serious 
arcade /adventure players. " 

• " fm not incredibly enthralled 
by V. The game has its good 
points, admittedfy. The anima- 
tion for Donavan s forward rolls 
is quite neet r but the back 
grounds make the robots hard to 
see, and generally make the 
game look a bit of a mess. Once 
you g*r into V, it's fun to play, 
and it gets better the longer you 
spenefwith it. I'm not sure that 
I d come back to it a lot but t 
played it for quite a while 
Overall, not bed, but it could 
have been improved. " 

9 " Controlling your man Is not 
hard, but at first it is a little 
confusing. The icons are also 
quite easy to use after a bit of 
practice. The graphics are disa- 
ppointing: there's a lot of colour 
clash and very lithe variety in the 
backgrounds. Your character is 
well animated, although some- 
times if s hard to make him out 
against the garish backgrounds. 
The sound is minimal, with only 
a few spot effects. Generally this 
follows Ihe trend of most Games 
-of-the-series in that it's 
disappointing. " 



COMMENTS 



Control keys : CAPS SHI FT left, X 

right, B to SPACE fire, P up, L 

down 

Joystick: KempstOn, Cursor, 

Interface! 

Keyboard play: fine 

Use of colour : effectively 

monochrome 

Graphics: neat animation and 

smooth scrolling 

Sound: continual noise 

Skill levels: one 

Screens: large scrolling playing 

area 

General rating : A neat arcade 

adventure, but where are The 

Visitors? 



Use of computer 


73% 


Graphics 


71% 


Payability 


68% 


Getting started 
Addictive qualities 


72% 


72% 


Value for money 


67% 


Overall 


70% 



26 CRASH June 1986 



MEASURE UP TO QUAZATRON 

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AT LAST 
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AND ASK FOR GAMES DEPARTMENT 







SPIKY HAROLD 



Producer: Firebird 

Retail price: £1.99 
Author: Andrew Rogers 



Harold is a so iky and fat 
hedgehog end his ambi- 
tion is to get even fatter. 
Fifty two bits of grub are scat* 
tared, one per screen, through- 
out Harold's homeland!. In twen- 
ty four hours from now winter is 
set to begin with a very severe 
frost, and It'll be time for e quick 
quarter of a year hibernation to 
put the little spikoid in shape for 
the coming year. 

Having Harold retire into his 
pile of (eaves without the appr- 
opriate layers of fat meant the 
poor linle creature is bound lo 
freeze to death around Christ- 
mas time It's up to all you joy- 
stick waggiers out there to get 
Harold's stomach packed with 
goodies from the surrounding 
countryside so he can survive 
the winter. 

Or Spiky is a rather special 
hedgepig, as unlike all his rela- 
tions, this young hedgehog has 
decided that the best mode of 
travel for him is waddling ar- 
ound on his hind legs. The 
player controls Harold's wobbly 
progress with the use of left and 
i right, and as on extension to 
Harold's lurch there's also a 
lump key available that conveys 
9 Irrtle boost into the air 

Harolds home territory is split 
Into fifty two screens, end as the 
spikeiette wanders out of view 
another screen flicks up. Apart 
from the scrummy morsel wait- 
ing to be collected, each screen 
contains a number of nasty haz- 
ards that remove one of Harold's 
nineteen lives on contact. They 
take the form of various foes 
including dripping acid, psycho 
snails, marauding birds and 
Other anti— hedgehog 

personages. 

Mast of the action it set 
underneath beautiful rolling 
countryside. Since few hogs 
dare venture down hare that's 



why all the food is still uneaten 
in the rush to hibernation timel 
Along with the food there ere 
coins which add an extra life on 
collection and the odd glass of 
wine that'll make Harold a slight 
bit tiddly Well he's only e small 
woodland animal and it doesn't 
take much to get him drunk . . . 
ail the controls are temporarily 
reversed after he's quaffed a 
glass of vino. 

So there it is: ignore Harold's 
plight and it's all too likely that 
you'll have the death of cute and 
cuddly (if you don't mind the 
odd prickle or two) woodland 
creature on your conscience. Is 
(his something you can live 
with? 



CRITICISM 



• " Alright! This guy could be a 
reel cool dude, with his smooth 



H(C* Httrokl itagyers m bit atlnr sivrpittg A firUis Of M»;rt* in 
me icr*#n ro the right C#n he timmhia ;umpi/ui! right Ingnf 
thml rusty **ggi*? 



i 




and ZZAP! reviewer style 
haircut I Unfortunately. his 
would-be characteristics have- 
n't been fully exploited In the 
r»e. and it doesn't take long 
rt to become boring as you 
trace the same course time after 
tine. Nineteen lives, even tho- 
ugh they're all needed, is a brt of 
■ sWy idea as well Other ideas 
that can be Men to have been 
at tempted are quite neat but « 
is the case so often, they just 
haven't worked. For £1 99. 
Harold and his spikes may pro- 
vide an hour's entertainment, 
but after that, rt would be 
destined for my 'budget bin' — 
the disposal unit feared by all 
chea pies' " 

• "Spiky Harold /* a playable 
and colourful game. The graph- 
ics are not the best I've seen in a 
cheapo game but they're ade- 
quate and the animation of "four 
p!ly character ts very good. The 
screens arsn 't very detailed and 
there is never much brain ache 
in getting the pieces of food. 
After 3 couple of hours pfayt had 
Just about tost interest as tt is 




daws agapq, thm grmmdy H*rold in LkMon Emuimtron M o d e h 
iUWtmbout to feed hit fmte on * tasty mont/ of grub, havtny 
got fMtSt th* he* mntthmt 



very infuriating when you have 
to go through the same screens 
every game to get anywhere. 
The sound is about average for 
this type of game, a whirring 
that vaguely resembles 'The 
Flight of the Bumble Bee' noise 
and a beep or two when you die. 
Not a brif/ianf game this, but 
quite good fun for a rainy 
afternoon. " 

• "Fat. wobbly »nd spiky, isn't 
there a magazine editor who 
looks like that? Spiky Harold is 
something of a neato budget 
game that for some very myster- 
ious reason is quite compelling 
to play. It's not anything inst- 
antly definable: it's certainly not 
the graphics or sound as they 
barely rate above average. Des 

Kite constant deaths, 1 just keep 
aving another go Making 
Harold jump, wobble and scoff 
Uust (ike a certain reviewer — 
Edi may seem a bit limited and 
even potential ry boring but 
Spiky Hsroid is worth having a 
look at, and well worth buying if 
it grabs you the way it did me, " 



COMMENTS 



Control keys: redefinable 
Joystick: Kemps ton 



Keyboard play: fine 

Use of colour: average 

Graphics: also average 

Sound: nice spot effects, but no 

turn 

SfcrW levels: one 

Screens; 52 

General rating: Quite a fun 

game, for a while at least . . . 




Use of computer 59% 

Graphics 62% 

Payability 66% 

Getting started 67% 

Addictive qualities 64% 

Value for money 70% 

Overall 66% 



THE COMET GAME 



Producer: Firebird 

Retail price: £7.95 
Author : Andrew Glaister 



H 



alley's Comet is speeding 
towards mother Earth car- 
rying lethal bacteria cap 
able of wiping oul all forms of 
life, according to the inlay, The 
game is obviously set in seventy 
six years time when Hal ley's 
Comet makes its next visit be- 
cause a highly advanced space 
ship has been dispatched lo 
destroy the deadly germs that 
live on il, {The game turned up 
long after the real comet had 
been and gone!) The screen 
shows a view through the cock- 
pit window of the shuttle with 
the comet shimmering in the 
distance and the stars scrolling 



towards the ship. 

To begin with you assume the 
personality of the ship's onbo- 
ard computer and have to deal 
with problems during the voy- 
age — the trip is far from 
uneventful. 

Every so often one of the five 
icons on the main viewscreen 
flashes to indicate that a prob- 
lem has just arisen. Each icon 
leads into a subgame, played 
against the clock, in which the 
fault or threat has lo be dealt 
with if the mam mission is to 
continue. Meteor showers have 
a habit of knocking the antenna 
oul of line from time lo lima, and 
it has to be adjusted until the 
maximum signal strength is 
regained. 

Drifting off course sets off a 
defence system which releases 
homing missiles targetted on 

CRASH June 1986 31 




your ship. A Misstfe Command 
type sequence ihen follows, and 
the aim is to limit the number of 
missiles that hit the ship, which 
changes colour from white thr- 
ough to blue before exploding 
when the shields give way. 

Coffee supplies must be kept 
high — vital for the pilot's 
reactions. A fleshing coffee jug 
icon leads to a screenful of icons 
which control the whole coffee 
making process. 8y moving the 
cursor around and selecting 
icons, the coffee system has to 
be kept in equilibrium, including 
the pilot's bladder, which has to 
be emptied with the 'P 1 icon lest 
it explode! 
, Now and again, rampant 
germs gain access to the venti- 
lation system of the craft and 
have to be eliminated in another 
arcade sequence in which a 
moving cursor is used 10 release 
spiralling germ killers. Finally, a 
logic problem has a habit of 
cropping up m g section of or- 
cuitry , end it has to be sorted out 
by providing the appropriate 
inputs to light up a set of LEDs 

The little sub games cycle 
round at random during the 
journey to the comet, and if you 
manage to survive them all it's 
time to get on with the main 
purpose of the mission: eradi- 
cating the germbags that live on 
the surface of the comet. Des- 
troy them all, and you can return 



to Earth a superhero end saviour 
of the human race, Take too 
many hits from the bugs, and it's 
game over. 



CRITICISM 



• Thinking of a proper game 
based on the vis.it of H alleys 
Cornel must hove been a pretty 
hard task, so Firebird must have 
decided to get a load of little 

together and think of m 
common element. They failed 
The Cornet Game is an excell- 
ently finished game, but it suf- 
fer? from lots of things that 
aren't well explained, such n 
the antenna alignment — you 
have to press fire on complet- 
ion, else you just blow up! 
Firebird have probably made 
the best they could have of the 
astronomical phenomenon, but 
this game is too bitty and would 
probably be too hard lor most 
people to enjoy " 

• "(jm t Hal leys Comet is an 
excellent feature around which 
to base a game, but could some- 
one teit firebird that (q set! lots 
and lots of copies of a game, and 
to get high piacmgs in charts 
ana things, you need a good 
game' The fine drawing routines 
put Andtvw Gfaister's trade- 
mark on the game, but the 
repetitive Sub-games get vary 
bofing after a while, f can see 
that the a uthor has tried to make 
the game a good one, and I have 
to give him credit for that but 
unfortunately it just doesn't 
seem to have worked out. When 
you have to start doing the same 
thing over and over again, it gats 
more and more tedious and t got 
very bo fed of it. " 

f> " Gfrl The on screen present- 
ation is very neat, but I was 
ready to throw a brick at the telly 
when it kept flashing 'YOU 
LOST' on the screen. Each of the 
Jitile games contained in the 
scenario is passably entertain- 
ing, but no great shakes, and by 
the time you've played them 
over and over and have still got 



Thm caff mm making icrsan, in which thm mmchmntcal 
wquiptnmn t h* j lobm kmpt topped up *nd thm human 
mquipmmnt mtnptimdaut! 




I 

I 



u 



L L- 




Altonihg thm mntmnn* to that it r+cmtvmt thm intarmum ti&ftal, 
a i indie* tod in fhm It trim panel on thm tmtt Don t totgttt ro 
p/esi firm whmn ymi'rm happy with its petition 



more to survive before getting 
to the comet itself, annoyance 
sets in. When you do finally 
make the cornel, the final sequ- 
ence really doesn't justify all the 
effort expended getting there, 
Sorry Firebird, this game is 
more Lukewarm that Hot. " 



COMMENTS 



Control keys: redefinable 
Joystick : Kempston 
Keyboard play: a bit stow to 
respond, maybe 
Use of colour: restrained 



Graphics: neat wire frame 

routines 

Sound: raspy spot effect 

Skill levels: one 

Screens: six 

General rating: Effectively a 

compilation of little budget 

games 



Use of computer 


69% 


Graphics 


71% 


Ptayability 


57% 


Getting started 


66% 


Addictrve qualities 


57% 


Value for money 


55% 


Overall 


58% 




Producer: A & F Software 

Retail price: £9.95 
Author: the A'nT team 



T 




he people living in the 
Federations asteroid' 

mine colonies are being 
wiped out for no apparent rea- 
son. Alien interference is sus- 
pected and Andrew Angel In. 
explorer extraordinaire, has 
been drafted in to deal with the 
problem. 

Andy travels to Eroc 1 to find 
that no-one is left alive. The only 
way to Solve the mystery is to 
locate the bio-memory seg- 
ments of the main computer, 
hidden deep within the mine 
workings on the asteroid. Once 
these nave been located, the 
Federation can examine their 
contents and use the informa- 
tion they hold to combat the 
alien murderers, 

The screen gives a side-on 
view of tunnels on Eroc 1. 
Dangerous alien machinery lies 
around the mines, so beware of 
anything that moves or looks 
nasty — contact with it drains 
energy from the battery pack 
powering Andy's protective suit. 
Each of the four mine leva is 
contains over 250 cells which 



Andrew has to investigate — 
linked by the flip-screen method 
favoured by arcade adventure 
writers. Anti-gravity lifts aJtow 
travel between segments of a 
level, while automatic leleports 
link levels. Standing in a teleport 
tor three seconds causes And 
raw to disintegrate end re mater- 
ialise on another level. Every 
time Andrew uses an anti-grav- 
ity lift or teleport, or is zapped by 
a nasty, his battery pack loses a 
little power. As the battery 
powering Andrew's suit runs 
down, the screen changes col- 
our from white, through yellow, 
red, mauve and finally blue. 
Death follows if the protective 
suit runs out of power 

A stilus panel reveals Andys 
progress. One display shows the 
exits from the current cefl; a 
dock ticks out the time expend- 
ed on the mission and s meter 
shows the amount of charpe 
remaining in the suit battery. An 
icon-driven menu allows the 
game position to be saved, once 
a cassette has been found in the 
mines, and the game computer 
can be asked for help, The game 
may be paused and a saved 
position loaded in. 

Andy has to find tools and 
other useful objects in order to 
complete his mission. A slight 
oversight on the part of the 
Federation means that the intre- 
pid explorer embarks on his 
adventure without a map, First 
priority must be to m ske one . . , 



32 CRASH June 1986 




Our superhero mmtlH*Ut *t in * ttffrpOrttr while [wo mahtlr 
IH1TMI — 3 xtnrbunt nndctct: rro ciuuti havtrt :n wjii tnrhm\ 
Cam#fOn'$ g-or ft is ownprrsona/dailc c'oud ClMt foftowi Arm 
rounrf on Mnntt* f mom mgi f 



CRITICISM 



• " At first glance I found Core 
to be very simitar graphically to 
Alphahatim's Robot Messiah — 
but without colour clash. The 
man is very easy to control, but 
he seems to move two charact- 
er* a long wh«n he turns which 
b « bit Of a pain when tryingto 
run away from the baddies- The 
whole idea of the game ii very 
similar to on Everyone's A Wa I ly 
in space, but with scenery that's 
MM sarney' the animation is 
very smooth and the graphics 
are pleasing to look at, but apart 
from that [found Core to be a 
very large but rather boring 
copy of all the good arcade/ 
adventures. " 



• " Core has got a reasonable 
scenario, but the game itself is s 
bit lacking in content The game 
is technically above average, 
with a very large area to explore; 
it has got good graphics, but 
colour and sound are both aver- 
age i found it quite difficult to 
get to grips with the game and 
make any big advances. With the 
exceptional Chuckie Egg II A&F 
have been quiet for a white, and t 
can't bet/eve that they've spent 
all that time /us t developing (his 
For ten quid, it's not one I'd 
hastily recommend to everyone 
f meet but mappmg freaks 
might find if a challenge to their 
abilities as it is pretty big, but it 
t$n "t mega-good . . " 



• " I don't really know what to 
make of this one At first sight ft 
seems to be very good, but after 
a few goes it becomes obvious 
that you should be able to do 
more then just potter around a 
stack of screens, A quick reread 
of the instruction booklet unco- 
vered the Icons, but not how to 
use or access them. I really did 
try to get on with them, but after 
a few more goes I'd given up 
trying to make the icons work for 
me. Graphically this game is 
excellent, the characters are well 
drawn and animated and the 
backgrounds add a nice touch 
too. My only gripe is that there 
could nave been a little more 
colour. The sound is poor there 
is no tune, and very few spot 
effects during the game Alth- 
ough I can appreciate the nicer 
points of this game. I couldn't 
really gel into it. " 



COMMENTS 



Control keys; redefine ble 
Joystick: Kempston, interface 2 
Keyboard play: no problems 
Use of colour: monochromatic 
play area hence no clashes 
Graphics: quite neat but samey; 
nice animation on the figure 
Sound: spot effects 
Skill levels: one 
Screens: 1,023 
General raring : A large, but 
somehow uninspiring arcade 
adventure 



Use of computer 


73% 


Graphics 


76% 


Payability 


64% 


Getting started 


68% 


Addictive qualities 


67% 


Value for money 


6&% 


Overall 


68% 













June 1986 







SUPERBOWL 



Producer: Ocean 
Retail price: £9 .35 
Author: Kaos 



Superbowl from Ocean is a 
two player simulation of 
the supreme American 
Football match which pits the 
Chicago Bears against the 
Patriots. Those of you who 
stayed up all night to watch the 
entire match live on TV know 
that the Bears stormed horns 
th is year to a resoundi ng victory , 

Superbowl can only be played 
properly by two human players, 
although one person can prac- 
tice moves and tactics by con- 
trolling both teams. 

The game comes in a two cas- 
sette pack with a fifteen minute 
audio cassette which gives a 
brief history of American Foot- 
ball and provides a quick 
resume of the rules. It also 
reassuringly points out the 
obvious similarities between 
American Football and Rugby 
Football, in case you go 
completely to pieces, 

During play, the screen is split 
vertically into two mem areas 
The section on the right shows 
the pitch and the players marked 
out in their respective playing 
positions while the left hand 
area is used for the menus that 
to control the game's progress 
A check can be kept on how 
much time has elapsed since the 
beginning of play, and two 
'video' screens give action 




replays and close-ups on panic 
ular players, just Hke they do on 
the telly! 

An elaborate menu system 
controls ail the action. Whoever 
is playing on the offensive side 
must sort put their tactics before 
the game can begin. The first 
menu shows the types of passes 
that can be used: long pass, 
short pass, rush play, and 
special play (which has its own 
little sub-menu). After the type 
of pass has been selected for 
your player to make, a further 
menu pops on screen and it's 
time to choose which player you 
want to control during the next 
section of play and what the rest 
of the team is going to get up to. 
Using a similar menu system, 
the other team's defensive 
strategy can then be set up — 
3-4^4 or 4-3-4 are probably the 
safest to go for when playing the 
game for the first few times. Fin- 
ally the marking scheme has to 
be sorted out and then the play 
can be made. 

Hitting fire causes the players 
to make their moves, and the 
right hand display follows the 
action. The general idea is to 
move the player in possession 
away from the other players as 
rapidly as possible before the 
inevitable rib-crunching tackle, 
Once each section of the game 
has been completed you may be 
treated to an action replay, 
showing in stow motion on the 
video screen exactly what hap- 
pened to your team during the 
previous bit of play. 



CRITICISM 



W Superbowl is by far the best 
American Football game on the 
Spectrum. Ocean soern to have 
brought the exciting part of 
American Football to the fore — 
the man Vs man action. Other 
efforts an the Spectrum lost 
most of the a tmospher a as they 
concentrated too much on the 
theory qf the game — although 
the Argus American Football 
was a very good manager's eye 
vi«W simulation. The graphics 
of Superbowl are very well done 
and routines for the replays are 
en eel lent The game's market. I 
feel, is definitely limited, mainly 
because it's an American Foot- 
ball game but also because it is a 
two player only game. Super- 
bowl missed out on all the hype 
before Superbowl XX and may 
well lose sales because of its 
late arrival. H you love this great 
American sport, then get the 
popcorn Out. invite a few friends 
round and knuckle down to this 
very playable, superbly finished 
Superbowl bonanza. The audio 
tape that comes with rt is most 
helpful, and ■ great touch. " 

#>Tm not the world's greatest 
American Football fan, out I 

















1 












































im 






■■-■■■' 


m 





The replay so«juertc« in full f tow during SUPERBOWL m* 
AmaWcatt Foottmit fimulation to end Mil Americmn Fooibmlt 
simulation* according our our AM Pontic freak, Dommic 




TftefcteAoff scr**n, wit n* wyrhing *#f up tot the next move 
Thv game mui too difficult for out Cameron to g«t to grig* 
ivrrh though i Ten Horn} 



sometimes watch Channel 4 
coverage, and enjoy it so Super- 
bowl ts quite rttce to play 
Despite the extensive instruc- 
tions and accompanying cas- 
sette, f found it pretty hard to get 
into, but once l started to under- 
stand it more, well look out 
Bears, here l cornel Seriously 
though, it t$ a very nice game to 
play, and the graphics, yvhife not 
revolutionary, are attractive 
The replay feature really adds to 
the game. Everything is as it 
should be and I think that Ocean 
have pushed the American Foot- 
ball theme to the limit by 
producing as realistic a simu- 
lation as is possible on the Spec- 
trum, i like iL " 

•"A very neat simulation 
indeed from the Ocean stable — 
it's just a pity that you have to 
play it with a friend to have 
much fun. The graphics are neat, 
the control system fairly easy to 
use once you get the hang of the 
game actually being played oul 
on screen and all in, this game 
should find a place in any sports 
simulation collection. I liked it, 
but American Football fans will 
really appreciate Superbowl. " 



COMMENTS 



Control keys: Player 1 : Q right, \ 
left, CAPS SHiFT down, A up,S 
fire; Player 2 ENTER right, 
SPACE left, P down, up, fire 
Joystick: Kempston. Interfaces 
Keyboard play: fine 
Use of colour: attractive 
Graphics: stick, especially on the 
Action Replay 
Sound: not a lot 
Skill levels: one 
Screens: one main viewscreen 
General rating: An excellent 
simulation that should be very 
well received by American 
Football fans but may not be that 
appealing to the general 
gamepleyer 



Use of computer 87% 

Graphics 86% 

Payability 79% 

Getting started 79% 

Addictive qualities 87% 

Value for money 89% 

Overall 85% 



34 CRASH June 1986 







Spectrum /Amstrad 



MIKRO-GEN 

Unit 15 The Western Centre 

Western Road 

Bracknell 

Berks. 




SPECTRUM 48K 





YIE AR KUNG FU 



If you con master the ten moves, expect the unexpected and FIGHT 
for your LIFE against the formidable masters of the martial arts you 
may live to meet them again on the mountain or in ihe Temple, 



MOVIE 



"Arcade style action drama 

* 3D gangsters 'hif your screen 

'Interactive 'bubble' speech 

"Don't miss this picture - it speaks for itself I 



MIKIE 



Mitae ploys o knockout frantic farce in the classroom, locker room 
d»nd the high school cafeteria. Hip-zap, door attack, throw balls and 
pie^but can yCRMTiake him hand his Jove letter to)hs girl-friend? 




it! ; ) /j 






%i Aw/. flr &*S 






Imagine Software 1 1984). 6 Central Sir- 
Manchester M2 5NS Tel: 06 1 -834 3939 66997/ 




L 




— 



A 



A 



SFORT& 



n 






Ji™' 






- 



PING PONG 



'A 



■ 



_ghlrie 
rdboc- ■■Teboll 



HYPER SPORTS 



iimuia* 
to the 

stxev» est you 

Hype' Spo^5 - allenge where Track 




QJl^t 



imagine Software is Q r I if 

available from seJeaed branches of ^ 

WHSMITH r ^ 'M-'-"Bg'l WOOiW/Otrm LASKTS Rumtwlowi Qreeno Spectrum Shops and ail good dealers. 



Thrill 



THEPOWL m 
MYSTICAL SUBSCRIBER* 

to the Positi^* Waves ~~~ 
created by j ts power 



At last, after a short period of dormancy, 
the power of the MYSTICAL SUBSCRIBER 
NUMBER has been invoked as a result of 
strange rune-casting rites known and 
performed by a select band of Ludlow 
initiates. 

People who already own a MYSTICAL 
SUBSCRIBER NUMBER should find a host 
of goodies accompanying their copy of this 
issue of CRASH — includ ing a GIANT A2 
siMEHrfJ;^i:lLiJirWfflm3m Realtime, a 
special newsletter doobrie produced exc- 
lusively for owners of the MYSTICAL SUB- 
SCRIBER NUMBER Talisman, containing 
details of money sav ing offers, and a full 
colour A4 ftlfcMJH ;lt] J I F VT.TTH1 from 
Hewsons. 

A tiny peek inside the top secret MYS- 
TICAL SUBSCRIBER NUMBER newsheet 
reveals that owners of one of Guru Denise's 
numeric al lucky charms will be ab le to save 
£2.00 on rtCT W Bl^/J^imnJIII if they 
complete a special HOLY TEAR OFF COU- 
PON sent out to owners of a MYSTICAL 
SUBSCRIBE R NUMBER and send it direct to 
the Realtime sauna with their loot. Not bad 
eh? Lucky people who already own a 
MYSTERY SUBSCRIBER NUMBER will also 
be able to thrill t o the opportunity of saving 
money on the W»%'i%MiWftyAWMMiiU-]if->* 
for the 48K Spectrum — there's £5.00 off 
the basic unit, and senders of another HOLY 
TEAR OFF COUPON can even save £10 if 
they want to buy a Comcon and a Quick- 
shot 2 plus 2 joystick together! 

Not bad deals, eh? If you haven't already 
got a MYSTICAL SUBSCRIBER NUMBER, 
its power passes you by this month, and 
none of these goodies will have reached 
you, Nor will you have a HOLY TEAR OFF 
COUPON or two to play with. Ahhh ! 






But there s mora. The Casting of Rites 
ceremony performed in ■ misty fold nt 
midnight has invoked even more wondrous 
goodie*, con joured out of the ether by the 
power of the MYSTICAL 
NUMBER A complete let ofetl the toft 
ware ever published by by £J3including 
T Shirt and set of posters was spirited into 
the office and the subscriptions computer 
went mad under the flying finger* of Gum 
Dents* Totally at random. It printed out a 
label containing THE NAME OF THE 

OWNER OF A MYSTICAL SUBSCRIBER 
NUMBER' 

Then the computer which is full of copies 
of the MYSTICAL SUBSCRIBER NUMBER 

la therefore prone to doing rather 
and wonderful thing*, tommuni- 

! with Guru Dent**, insisting thet she 
*end the PSS Goodiebeg to th* owner of 
MYSTICAL SUBSCRIBER NUMBER 2 10023 
A certain N Wifllamton of Carlisle in 
Cumbria will by now have received the 
Complete Works of PSS — end aB because 
the pereon had a MYSTICAL SUBSCRIBER 
NUMBER' 



= r 
I 



i 



7 



FT 



I 






f OF THE 

\IUMBER BURSTS FORTH! 



ISN'T IT ABOUT TIME YOU GOT ONE TOO? 



YOU CAN! All you have to do is send £15.00 
to Guru Denise with the completed appli- 
cation form that appears on this page, But 
there's more still I 

This month, novices who seek to avail 
themselves of a MYSTICAL SUBSCRIBER 
NUMBER will reap the benefit immediately. 
For th ey can choose to receive a free 
[»;^VJSB>lT7Pn' ] as soon as their order is 
processed b y Guru Denis e , or they can take 
their r^.1u»in»i«HI J3h^M » MiiH3l Yes, 
Novicesseeking to gain the power 
of the MYSTICAL SUBSCRIBER 
NU MBER this month can have 
one liiiBTHSB — Commando, 
Frank Bruno's Boxing, Bombjack or 
the brand new, on the verge 
of being released, Ghosts and 
Goblins, previewed on Page 124 of 
this issue. Not a bad deal eh? 













Guru Denise says 



m5* 



'.MYSTICAL 
SUBSCRIBER 
NUMBER 
APPLICATION 
FORM 



Dearest Gum Denise 

I would like you to ensure that the power of 
the MYSTICAL SUBSCWBER NUMBER 
keeps wonting for me, so enclose a cheque 
or postal order for £ 15 as I live in the United 
Kingdom j If I'm a European Person I realise 
I have to send E22.00, so I have.) 

Please talk nicely to the computer that 
helps vou look after all the MYSTICAL 
SUBSCRIBER NUMBERS and refresh mine 
or cause a new one to be made avai I able f □ r 
my personal and exclusive use. 



1 



A "9t£,*t* 



Don 't forget to let me know tfthtsrs the first 
time you have had a MYS TICAL 
SUBSCRIBER NUMBER, 









^^£ 



COMMANDO 

This conversion of the 
cfcssk Capcom Arcads 
o*ne won Elite a CRASH 
Smash an the Christmas 
Special — 94% overall: 
A first rate arcade con- 
version — very eodtcttwe 



BO^****** oof"***" 
■Ei^ ^yabiWY **£ 



gyST^AlW)GOeUNS 
2?«J? Ua 'p HnWied at 
we tene of writing, but 
£" ***£ corrvSr^or, 
i£Z?Z* tor 9 t ** t things 



rVTy Pi flme is ■ ■#«■»•«■•■»■■■■* * * •■■-*■■■ »< 



and I'd I ike my monthly copy of CRASH sent 
to me at: 



POSTCODE 



Please make my MYSTtCAL S UBSCRIBER 
NUMBER start wrth tSSU£: [ 

I've ticked one o f the boxes wh ich appear 
next to the Qoodies on offer to mark the one 
I'd like to receive, so please make sure I get 
mypressJe. 

H BOMBJACK 

_ COMMANDO 

_ FRANK BRUNO'S BOXING 

_ GHOSTS AND GOBLINS 

J CRASH Binder 




FOR SPECTRUM, 

COMMODORE 64 

ANDAMSTRAO 



Liberty House, 

222 Regent Street, 

London W1R 7 DB 



AFTER THE EGG COMES. 






ENCY TRANSMISSION . . . EMERGENCY . . . EMERGENCY TRANSMISSION . . . EMERGENCY . . . EMERGENCY TRANS 

Distress signals received from Eroc I suggest all human life threatened . . . 
Expect co find terminal situation , , , Prepare accordingly . . . 

From A *n* F comes CORE; teleport into this fully animated, icon-driven adventure and explore over one 
thousand full-screen locations - Will you find the pieces of the scattered brain and put it back together 

before yours falls apart? 

In case of difficulty, Core can be obtained from Arjuj Press Software Ltd . Greenwood House, Dewhum Street, Dorwen, Lanes. BB3 2EN. 




I am pleased to say thai ihrs month's more than overflowing 

mailbag contained n high percentage of very sensible letters (there 

have been months when this has not been the case!}, and * think 

they make interesting reading Subiects for discussion have been 

wide, but certainly a lot of reader* have responded lo Graeme (the 

Birmingham Godfather) Kidd's comments on the Spectrum 128. 

- many left a need to praise or cry out against Mel Croucher's inter- 

' view, and there has been considerable response against comments 

nude by Tony Bridges in a letter to the April Forum, Lots of CRASH 

"2 readers atso watch TV or listen to the radio, not that this is 

. surprising in itself, but what is alarming is the fact that they do so 

has led them to discover my terrible secret — or so they think But 

n more of thai later on 

LI One subject that has now sadly faded from these pages is the 
- I continuing battle for desk space, writing room and sanity with Rob 
• • Candy (see the Playing Tips rf you haven't already], but doubtless 
n the Powers That Be wilt annomt my sainted head with some other 
horror 

So , a diff icu It task to select a worthy letter ol the month from such 
a good mailbeg. but this one caught my imagination because of its 
G feminist plea 



* WHILE THE CAT'S AWAY . . . 



NEVER 
PUBLISHED, SOB! 

Pwrtjgyft 

Many CRASH readers write 
letters in to express their views 
on something; or to complain or 
just for publicity But about 
99.9% of these readers a rs 
disappointed I o find (hen letters 
absent from the next issue. 

Of course it's impossible to 
print all the letters you receive, 
but what makes me so angry is 
that some people like Jeremy 
Conrws end some others, have 
had their fame rs primed mora 
than ones. 

I for one have spent at least 
ftO on stamps for the letters I 
have sent end haven \ and 
probably won't have any of my 
tetters printed. But people 
Jeremy are *o ho rn b)y ki chy and 
people like you ere to terribly 
bi a se d that I expect to see 
another of his letters soon, but 
none of mine {including this 
one! Why am I wasting my time 
anyway? 
Mark Confer, Dunfermline, Fife 

Perhaps you just Oka writing 
letters, Mark. However, as you 
see, sometimes even you can be 
lucky. } 'he simple reason why 
Some people get theirs printed 
more than once, rs that usually 
they ate foltow-ons from an 
aarhar argument. Sometimes 
they just arm lucky. 



FORUM 
FORUM 



Dear Lloyd, 

I woo Ed I tke to cong ratulate you 
on your generally excellent 
magazine, h is still the best 
magazine for the Spectrum but 
of 'ate has become inconsistent 
and (he Forum rather trivial. I do 
not object to any of the covers as 
I am not impressionable at 
fifteen years of age and I would 
tike to ssfcjhal the subject bf . 
obscene' jJ**Au r *s by Olive* Frey 
has over the I5e4 few months 
become rather 

I know that , 
schedules lo keep ai 
magazine is prepared wTM 
advance but lately I have been 
disappornted when gamm that 
a re in the shops do r.nt appear in 
your magazine until etther the 
next issue or the issue after 
Merely Mangrarn i&gjttp 
are the Playing Tips ana 
Adventure Trail, but I find 
popular Hall of Slime point) 
due to the fact thai most c 
scores are made up anyway. I 
know for a fact that friends^T 
mine have had a photo taken, 
made up some high -scores and 



I 



Pear Sir, 

t am a regular CRASH reader, 
and of course. Spectrum 
owner. I have noticed that 90% 
of the letters you print on your 
page are from teenage boys 
with the remainder from their 
dad's and one or two sisters, I 
can't ever remember seeing 
one from a mother in her 
thirties iearly thirties) so here ii 
is. (But will you print it?) 

There is nothing I enjoy 
more when the kids are at 
school, and the baby's playing 
quietly, than a good session on 
the old joystick {or keyboard). I 
don't buy very many 
expensive games but 
occasionally manage to 
stretch the housekeeping a bit 

I love adventure games but 
unfortunately, I'm not too 
good at them (I haven't 
completed ThaHobbitl. 
Platform games are another 
great favourite, at present it's 
Firebird's Booty, but I do enjoy 
games like Blue Thunder and 
Harrier Attack and of course 
Sabrewutf, 

I bet there are hundreds of 




other mums who wait till tl 
lads are at school and then 
have a sly go, so come on 
ladies, stand up and be 
counted. Perhaps in the future 
Crash will run a 'ladies page' 
lust for us (Good idea eh 
Lloyd}?? 

Mrs Lin Rhodes, Lewishant, 
London SE13 

I'm sure! have printed the Odd 
mom s fetter' in the past but 
you 're right— they're few and 
far between, and yet there 
must be plenty of housewives 
and mothers who find some 
time on ihetr hands in the busy 
workaday and also have the 
inclination to play computer 
games. Lefs be hearing from 
you then. However, not all 
female CRASH rgaders think 
I'm that wonderful as a tetter 
coifed 'Fudging the issue' 
indicates, Anyway Lm, that's 
£20 worth of software for you. 
so you can update on some 
newer games than the ones 
you mentioned! 



m 



• sent them away lo your 
j magazine , w he re as often as not 
they are printed. 
As to your ratings system 1 do 
, not always necessarily agree 
j with them and when being 
l confronted with six CRASH 
l Smashes in the February issue 
and eight in the March issue I 
think il becomes necessary to 
award a higher accolade to 
show the pick of tha^nch'. 
Justin fiicfcle. Plymouth, Devon 

I itv Ha a was always 

mtandadaad" 
taken too st 
totally pointless 

<stent fy 
antidote ttitm^ yvy ooftng 

■ sly 

tatrehadacore* found m 

rr maga&nes at the time. . 
— Tfnef^fc 'Hall of Slime' waff 
fktokV&^mpxpGnse of titles hki 
f /fiatfofrWie' Perhaps today ft 
has outlived its time, akhbugh 
■ the questionnaire results 
f indicate continued popularity 



m 

nV 



BaaaaaaaaaaP^ILal 
^oneutf- an ^* 



with some people What do 
readers think? 

I've spoken at soma fengt/Qin 
pest issues about the timing 
problems that can ansa with 

Sjame re/ease dates, seeing 
mished pre-release copies a> 
actually getting a review out on 
the s*eet. We re all too often in 
the bams of serendipity 
(LMLWDrwhen things go well, 
and whatever the opposite is 
when theyVon-y I'm glad to 
you NOT 
having too 
Smashes, b 
month' is ant 



sometim, 
learn to chi 
another. I'm n 






1 



ntthe 
raati 
t review 
me above 
saying it's 
■,r' 'ipttodo 
ut it adds mblh&fefement 
quation^andi/^ To 

H^re hard end 
ion taking 
ssary. Ho 
another option open 
tft-the ques^pnnatre ft, 
UH 

CRASH June 1986 41 




BYE BYE SAILOR 



* Dt-ar Lloyd, * * 

% Help'" could you please, please t DJ Torcroft". Weston Super \ 



Ihef^TroniCT game ftopeyp? I * 
I saw it Df>ce In 3 shop in Wesion. \ Despair no more. Popeye has * 



t buy il, but when I did have, no 
shops twl ,T loll 
I would also like lo ash any 
l rwdertH Iheyhaveflpptyeor 
. Tomahawk* 



ight to be in your shops now, 
\ and with fuck there may even be * 
a competition for tt in thts issue . 
* idon't know for sure at the time 
I otwntingi \ 

I "« < 



728 



WHO DO WF 
APPRECIATE? 



Our deeply beloved CRASH editor. Graeme Kidd, spatted off 
some controversy in the April issue with his comments on the 
128K Spectrum. Lots nave written tnon the subject and there isn I 
room for ell the letters, so to get as much in as possible, here are 
some extracts, kicking off with a long one that stales the case for 
worry... 



I 



Dear Lloyd, 

I thought I would writs to you 
to a i r my views on G raeme 
Kidd's article about the 
Spectrum 128's future as a 
games machine in last months 
issue, and perhaps to 
encourage people to support 
the 126. 

In his article Graeme was 
talking about the software 
manufacturers attribute to the 
new machine. And it seemed 
to me that most of them had no 
fixed plans for the future and 
were waiting to see how well 
the machine would sell. This is 
fine if the public are going to 
support it, but at the end of his 
article. Graeme said that due 
lo the lack o fjflfcuar e perhaps 
potent ia I OtArsrs of C ive's 
machine sfluld hold bat • 
wait I Itrvogy not ever, i 
would takeef aeme'- wo- 
tha gospel. bu^rraiftwSrB 
companies are not writing 
games until the machine sells, 
and the buyers are not buying 
because there is no decent 
software, then you might as 
well say goodbye toth^U^^ 

I would not dreprrr for one 
minute of r pu ttjjijHpraemo 
down as h*>is obviously a very 
highly respect .1 member of 
the computer press working 
for such a magazine as 
CRASH, and vm «K an 
everyone else will want to 
the 178 becomejgfJPg success, 
especially after the recent sell 
out of Sinclair to big rivals 
Amstrad . 
M Smrlh, Bournemouth, 

Dorset 

Now, think about it Graeme, if 
we all waited for everybody ' 
else to buy the new 128, where 
would we be? Look at it from 
the point of view of the 
software companies. What is 
the point of making games for 
a machine which has nobody 



to play them? The obvious 
thing to do is to let somebody 
else make ihem, end only i f it 
becomes a success do you pin 
in. BUT you (at CRASH 
Towers) have told us all NOT 
to buy the 128 This means that 
fewer people will buy the 123, 
either because they trust your 
divine words or because 
they're incredibly gullible, and 
therefore fewer companies 
will make fewer games, fewer 
people will buy the 1 28 and so 
on, etc. 

CRASH Reader. Shrewsbury. 

Salop >y 

HELP 1 ' My son has just sold 
his Spectrum Plus and is 
desperate for a Spectrum 128, 
As lemoneof the many mums 
who know nothing at all about 
computers la BAM to me is still 
en animal) toaybeyou would 
advise mo on buying one' Is it 
a good buy and without being 
biased — is it worth the 
money??? ' 

Janet Midgley, Guttata?, 
Leeds 




spate of 
releases 
er would 
n early 
may now 
peak of 



uxceifeni 
which, I rn try 

QfuTOUOj 

1883, the' 
i -..ive reached 
techncal excellence, and due 
to the release of the Spectrum 
128 (am now worried that 
magazines such asyourselves, 
will concentrate on this bow 
machine and leave us lesser- 
mortals behind in the rush. 
After ail, the ZX81 was never 
heard of again after the 
Spectrum launch in 1982. 1 
would like to kneenwhat 
decision CRASrflBn make 
about 1 28 coverage and 
eagerly await the outcome 
Justin B icicle, Plymouth, 
Devon 



I 
I 

I 
I 
I 



'12SKUKI ft'* hem' * 

Oh dear met shock horror, fear 
Woe is us . Woe is me 
Is this the end of Crash as we see? 



□ I 



Am I too early or am I too laie? * 

Oh my god ijjs the 128 % 

Will yoAJChajHr^hiis mag asyou show it7 * 
is th is the enoof C rash as we know it? * 




Th?s 1 28K can't just be a myth 
Is the 4SK Spectrum on the edge c 
Us 48K owners can't take this Wv 
Put us out of our misery and tell 



of a cliff? 
more 

score 



Will it be reviews for the 128? 
Come on now you can tall usst 
if you do away with the 49K 
Spectrum owners will rebel and y 



ll^^tfte score \ 

light 
rj yoWTave no say 



So take this warning while it seems quite clear I V 

Or else it won't be long till you are trembling with fear' - 

So keep up the game reviews for the 48K , 

Or ir won't be long till you drive us away! 

Stuart MacDonaW, Falkirk. Stirlingshire 

PS Your mag won't be the same with 1 28 game reviews every 

week. 

Phewt The ftrst point to make the said with Graeme's unsafely 
razor at ha throat) is that Graeme did not say don 1 buy a 128. fn 
fact he said; 'So tf you are thinking about upgrading from your 
trusty 48K machine, the best advice is to hang on in there tore 
while, and see what happens. ' 

The operative word was upgrad ing' and, as we ha ve/usl seen 
with Amstrad knocking its price down by 40 to 133, the sentence 
made good sense. Graeme did not mean to imply that no one 
should buy the I 28 but that caution in changing from 48 to 12$ 
should be exercised. For people who donotown a 48K Spectrum, 
then the 128 is a sensible purchase. I hope this answers Janet 
Midgley 's worries. 

Those concerning themselves over the gradual decline ol48K 
m favour of 12SK games, now have Alan Sugar and Amstrad to 
take into account, end I suppose them's little doubt that the48K 
Spectrum's days ere numbered, but don 't forget — there are a lot 
of machines out there and software houses are not going to 
dump the software over night 

Of course CRASH if bound to review T28K games, otherwise 
we would be letting down those readers who intend to upgrade, 
are doing so or may already have done so. This change m 
machines, complicated even further by the Amstrad takeover, is 
clearly a bit disturbing, but then progress usually is, and! would 
suggest everyone relaxes a bit bides their time and sees what 
happens in the next few months 

I So much for48K. owners, what about someone who already 
has a 126? 
LM 

| INTERFACING TROUBLE 

Dear Lloyd. 

I em the proud owner of a Spectrum 128. a computer which I 

heartily recommend, I am satisfied very well by the 1 28, but not 

I by the service or attitude of Boots, who supplied it. The pad 
comprised of the 1 28 computer, a tape recorder, two manua 
twotme Ocean games, a Cheetah joystick and irrte rf ace. software 
vouchers and a IS general Boots voucher. A few hours later l 
discovered thai the interface didn't fit. * \ — 
/ I retu med it next Saiu rday and was issuers repl scemen i wh i eh 
was shown to fit. I then wasted several hournpnvincedthat I was 
doing something wrong when the joystick still failed to wont 
According to Sinclair, it is 'IN 31 \ ie Kempston compatible, but 
th*j computer didn't seem to realise this — the Kempston option 
didn't function. I returned il that afternoon, and the replacement 
was tested on my computer in the store. An assistant loaded 
Robin Qflhe Wood, the computer 'expert" was busy nearby, with 
o^Uj^Bajmer, First of ait she tried the Sinclair option, then 
o KempSp one — neither worked. She then sou ghfl he advice 
oflWr 'expert', who told us that they'd recently been contacted 
by Sinclair about an unidentified fault in the interface. He said, 
initially that he'd known this for a c ojjpieo fdeys. I replied that 

was when I'd bought the 1 28 and miFiTIUHUjiIii ' vihy 1 hadr 

been informed of the fault. He now said that tr 
I just this minute heard. He then tried to find the letternfi^^H 
I only having had it for 'literally' a minute, he'd lost It 

■ Then the assistant, who previously hadn't had a dueebdfl 

■ what was wrong with the interface, transformed into someone 

■ who very professionally showed me the relevant paragrapRef 







42 CRASH June 1986 



that l 
ad 

nnotbe 
by readily 
no(otclilh«»ri about 




the newly found letter and casual ly 
working version when the fault had 

It seems to me that although the to 
blamed on Boots, they are taking adv L . 
accepting their money boi not being uy 
a potential fault, »^ n*H^j 

Now a piece of advice f on3|8 1 Ufa,, when changing the E.sr and 
Mic leads, the Reset button is dangerously close., R ' 

I've a Ieo noticed two traitors among your staff . John M > ns < \ 
a PCW spy and FrancoJ-rey -^<* *■ r Computer Choice spy G el rid 
of ihem before they * uin yoPsguer fiuountv — tLMLWD 
magazine "' L ll| ^* 

NlAm Byers. Taunton. Somerset 



UNDER PAR FOR THE COURSE 



W 

f FrernMkWne fm\ 



i! 



Working backwards, lean assure you th$t FranWUhe frvgattfrey 
has never done anything for Computer Choice. As for John 
(Aloha) Mmson (the man wttos shirts scream fmaawmegifut. 

refesse), I'm afraid to confess thai >• ' -« and bods aft ov*-r 

the piece and (whispering) sometimes in piaews you 'd be moat 
Surprised about, dU 

tot my part, I'm not surprised that Boots set mad a r- i 

about the interface problem — the y weren 't the only ontayFget I 
caught out, but tt doasn J t excuse that particular branch 'S casual^ I 
attitude. I 



THE SECRET'S OUT OF THE 
CADDY BAG 

Deaf Lloyd. 

Hello, what was thai f Lloyd Mangram was the course record 
holder with 64 until Nick Price broke the course record on 
Saturday 12 April 1986 * 

Apparently, his record stood for 36 years so it must have been 
harrtlo break , Well done Lloyd 1 1 have an iries to si op all The 
stuped letters thai arrive in the Forum about your real identity or 

•i look like Why not have a competition when crash 
readers have to draw you and the nearest looking wins a prize. 
You coi i Id pr i m t he win n i ng ent ry at t he lop of t he ti lie page every 
month as well 

Lastly I love the bcauiiful colour reviews that have appeared In 
CRASH and some good recent examples are Winter Games and 
Bomb Jack and Three Weeks tn Paradise. Thank you very much 
for ihfs as it bnqhtens up CRASH a great deal 
Aaron Brown, Chesterfield. Derbyshire 

What's he talking about f ('if tail you. Aaton, ttkv 'ois of other 
attentive radio listeners heard an item that goiter Nick Pnce has 
broken a record at the American Augusta Ciub's presttg 
Masters" championship Read on . . . 



Disregard all the other claims 
I of knowing your identity, I 
have found it. I was watching 
golf on television the otheff , 
day, the US Masters to be \ 
exact. The commentators 
were talking about the record 
. for the Augusta Golf course i n 
I Georgia, USA, when who's 
J nameahouldcomeupbut 
I Uoyd Mengram. that's right 
! your identity is finally out 



\ 



I know you are 83 but you 
should be able to read my 
writing, 

Tim Borring. Kimbolton, 
Huntingdon. Cambs 



you 

May el 
birdies. 

Jeremy Weston, 
Wiltshire 



ur holes be 



x. 





\ 



j re.. 



This means that the pfeiu 
of Derek Btewster rs a pictur*! 
alias an B3 yea r-ajri y 
glassesl Deretrs ™ 
hs lucual fact in Robin 
Candy s i ngd! So you are 




I 



ib"! 
I with thi; psuedo i 
J Cantfy' to pret t 
Wise name, ar 
' tots of letters. 

1 Have you got 1 

ypuas»golTer?; 

have a Monty Mole comie 
p? 3 Whydon't you have 

.letters from Chinese people? 




Apparently, some person 
named Lloyd Mangram had 
64 in the US masters 
odd years ago. So 
have it, a 65 year old 
computer maniac 
M hi q n't afford a new 
'' tyivwriterl 

Hayrfen Reeve, Boston Spa. 
Yorttshirt 

Okay, great hoot* <>* laughter 
etc. 8m let's gaw one thing 
straight. Yes &>*-' persbn you 
r W was a famous goffer, 
81 > I HE HSSLS AMERICAN I 
eft from n# 
ttfrat I'm ti true 
rough and 
thfoug^&Btdes which, end 
you can check this one out his 
name was not Uoyd 
Mangram, but Lloyd 
mANGRUM with a V. Good 
try guys. Now where did t put 
the putter . ,? 
LM 




Dear L lay dy Baby, 
Picture the scene, there I am, 
enjism' down the freeway in the 
ol' Chewy, whflBSuddenty, 
what appea* djjpl kJtorizor 
but my friendly m 
computer store. Go^ 
exclaims I 'Musi b<j: <!fte oft in 
there n r s^* whaLifu t 've got 
the way of sojBpre 
and what gd^Hhts m 
large greenpox bearing thu 
phrase Nltxfatdo plays trie 
Open AherTDOfldejrirtOfrr d 
short I inw, I purcKoSethi 3 item . I 
take it home 1 load it, No 
problem with the hyper load Not 
a bad little game. Next day . I 
load it. No problem with the 
hyperload. Noi a bad little game 
Next day. I load it. Unbeknownst 
(LMLWD} to me, my tape deck's 
feeling hungryXrunchl Silly me 
I think. Must'va been my fault. 
So, at the next possible 
opportunity. I buy another Nick 
I faldu plays the Open. I load it. 
Not a bad little game. Next day. 1 
load it. Crunch r Another tenner 
biles the dust. 

Never having had a tape 
chewed up on me before, and 
now two in ten days, made ma a 
bit suspicious. Upon examining 
the deru net cassette, I find it to 



be of very inferior quality, 
especially where the tape joined 
the reel. So. writing to Argus, I 
explained the situation. They 
wouldn't have it, however, and 
'jnjusted I paid another Cl for 
another copy. I did. It lasted less 
than 48 h ours . Crunch. This is 
getting LjgMpuj a joke. Thirty 
So in I go . j : a month for nothing, and 

bV ~ H was do^Po pathetic quality 

Mb, 

So, how's about it. Argus? 

While we* re on the subject of 
golf, you wouldn't happen to be 
related to the LLoyd Mangram 
who won the Open in abourl953 
would you? Oh well . . . 
C Benson, Hamitton. 
Lanarkshire 

t can't say that we've ever 
noticed any problems with 
Argus tapes before. Maybe 
they've changed cassette 
manufacturers or duplicators, 
and maybe, a problem that 
befalls most software houses 
from time to time, they've 
suffered a bad batch which, as 
they tend to stay together, air 
ended up at your fnendfy 
computer store. Any comments 
from someone at Argus? 
LM 



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CRASH June 1386 43 




THE MEL CROUCHER AFFAIR 



Dear Lloyd, 

I read with interest Graeme 
I Kidd's intefviewpf Mol 
j CroucheirccwKsming the 

lattc/'s views eboqt tfte advent 

of a mof 

computer <*ge, am 5 jtoki and 

j more Original H-inifei, i -w" y 
| |#oductMJfof matearivanf.ir'i 
I compulcrsJadm 
I which Mr Croucher tries to 

' i i r Hnt n ew and mo? a no* i 
:uter games 

One has 
to agree tra^^^^^^H^Bnes 
on Ine'rDarcBt ar«» tot ally 
origrna .*nd nor derivative . 

But. rloajsMr Croucher 
realise that people on the 
whole generally enjoy these 

(games, no matter how banal , 
they are. or however pointless 
they appear 10 be. For 
I instance, let's look at the latest 
[ (April | CRASH Hotline chart, 
I and to be more specific (he 

:lrte (sijoot em upAtrategyl 






2 Commando (sholOm up) 

3 WOTEF (V ir,,!-7be*t urn up} 
4hjirliyhl ' i:: <jde aH 

6 Sterquek'; i arcade 
"MatcMaytstfaterjyl 

7 Badr vj Skool (arcade 
advH"-i!ijre| 

S Hy [ if ■-- Sports j SpQi '• ' 

9 Gyroscope (arcade: 

10 Highway Fincoiji 
(arcade) ^^ V 

NothrTlg very Bnginalq/ 
now derivative Ihere^ tetliijn' 
now? ThisMaam ti» prove fi'iy 
point Mrapout 
comply i ad Ids' year sb<> 
retailers 1 blma spot fonf^H 
Ex Machine, maybe the^i*^^ 
thought the public wouldn't 
enjoy thoea son of games. 
t . And, judging by reajdbs' 
present opinions triVP&eem to 
have gogt right. Look at the 
1085 CRASH Headers' Awan 
any Totally original . 
there? Deus Ex Mac> 
probably didn't 
because, amongst 
reasons the public didrmtke it 
It will be very interest! ngto see 
how well © will sell. MjHk 
Croucher will probably tjfftbf 
with me that he enfbye^V 
writing and playing Deus Ex 
Machine, like many 
programmers would say 
about thei (■games. So a logical 
conclusion is that more 
programmers enjoy writing 
games like Commando than 
other prog rammers who enjoy 
writing games I ike Deus Ex 
Machine And it seems lo me 
programmers attitudes seem 
lo reflect on the opinions of the 
games players, -fk 

Before I nnishH^uld like to 
raise two more quick points. 

Mr Croucher claims thai 
teenage programmers do not 
possess an active imagination, 
and thusjgBican only be 
denvefl^^fc-efjggest this is 
utterly '^VHTus. why. of 
course l^nVyearplds have A 

44 CRASH June 1986 



perfectly good imagination. 
Then Mr Croucher says that 
they do not have the 
vocabulary to express their 
thoughts! Was Mr Croucher 
ever 147 | doubt it Sorry MeL I 

* think you've got it wrong. 

i Mr Croucher then suggests 
that the unimeginaiive 14-15 
kids are getting bored of 
computers like the Rubik Cube. 
Rubbish i The average age of a 
CRASH reader must be about 

»1 4- 1 fj and the growing 
popularity Of any magazine 
can only suggest that 
enthusiasm is increasing 
rather than being 'stuck away 
under the stairs'- So kids aren't 
becoming bored of the old 
concept, contrary to what Mr. 
Croucher says. 

Otherwise it was an 
interesting article and Mr 
Croucher brought up many 
good points, the answers to 
■ which only time can tell. 
Guy Walters, Beaconsfield, 
Bucks 



Guy wasn't the onfy one with 

reservations 

LM 




I am writ ing in complete 
disgust about your Mel 
Croucher interview. It isn't 
CRASH that I'm disgusted with 
it's MeM He says (section on 
senseless violence, last 
paragraph) that us kids of 14- 
15 years (tarn one of them) are 
incapable of coming up with 
U^ an original idea and even 

Ipjwfien we could, we wouldn't 
puive the vocabu la ry to 
express il Listen to the words 
of am. hi who is damning the 
youth < if society. How pathetic 
■Pian is 

The software that us kids' 
turn out may well be 
derivative, but that is usually 
due to us not being brilliant at 
artificial intelligence 
techniques. There is one game 
however, which was 
programmed in BASIC, was 
not technically excellent, and 
didn't even get a good review. 
The game is Frame the Flee 
reviewed in the seme issue as 
the offending article. There 
was not one bit of killing in it. 
He even contained some 
compassion in that the end is 
when the flea meets its 
mother. Try and sneeze at thai 

-S. one Mai. 

I am considering an artificial 
intelligence game at the 
moment. Pipe dreams. "Kids' 

-^- dreams,' Mel may utter, but I 
know I have the capability Id 
design and program it, and 
definitely the imagination. Aal 

— road the interview. I became 
more and more sure that 
Nuwave was the company 
best suited to It but when I 
came to thai' line, my mind 
snapped off the idea instantly, 
and its present stale is not 
likely to change unless Mel 



I 
I 
I 

T 
1 



I 
I 
T 
T 
T 




changes his very destructive 
views. To sum up, I think Mel 
had better look at a few of the 
'kids' around him, and instead 
of seeing them as mindless 
prats hell-bent on killing, try 
considering what a benefit 
they van be to software- 

Yourscnragedly, 
Simon Titlson, Lrrtisovet, 
Derby 



. . . end there was some 
weementtoo . . 
LM 



Pi 
I 




I feed with great interest 
Graeme Kidd's interview with 
Mel Croucher. a man with 
whom I share many views. I 
am a 16 year old student, who 
has had the pleasure, and 
sometimes the annoyance of 
owning a 4SK Spectrum, for 
the past 2 years, I have seen 
and watched with great 
interest how the Computer 
Industry has changed In the 
past 4 years the Spectrum has 
been enhanced to its 
Supposed limit with new 
software. 

We have been flooded with 
hardware like the Microdrive. 
Wafadnve, interface I and 
many others, yet where has 
this lead the industry? Instead 
of improving I think it has dis 
improved, providing re-runs at 
old computer scenarios, like 
platform games and lately the 
wonderful if over-used 
sporting idea. What the 
industry is lacking is 
innovative idea*, the like of 
which Mr Croucher seems well 
able to apply to his skill with 
computers, I have vflt to 
encounter iD which sounds 
interesting, if slightly limited in 

Same-play 
lark Beany, Carrickmlnas, 
Dublin 



BEING TOO 
FRONT 



Dear Lloyd, 

I have a I ways been impressed 
by CRASH'S policy of letting its 
readership air its view. The 
support of freedom of speech is 
highly commendable li was 
with this in mind that I read 
April's Forum, I was amaied to 
see Mr Blrch/s letter in support 
Ol advanced advertising I find il 
incredible that someone should 

- t*lievethe'ttae 
com t mm* invoivei ? should 

tise so fj^^Bdva nee a 
meir vtogive the public j 
enouvi' Umetosj-v iv-ita&hl 
Surely Mr^Qbufty^d 

Inter, liftgly, yourm#q;" 
also pubjbhed • letter t, Gary 
May* ■' PSS, His v*' 'an ©f the 
adverti fhFng quandrv seems 
must) : i . re plausrhle . 
Adverfisi^^^P software 
industry nHHsusiy as 

inta" is in any other 
y Without it sales would, 
oe snorter, but this is 
excusfl LK#t zealous 





y'L, 
^nservt ■ 



trumpet blowing. 

Mr Maysappeareg to miss the 
point that a lot of people are 
disappointed and frustrated by 
havinggames, udvertised but 
una vanuJe g* worse, not < 
compi-'teii Worse still is the 
taking of r» «gney for i 
products PSS may not i 
their cheque* but I'm i 
are those who do. in at 
what does Mr Mays thir 
payinfl cu si o mere were i 
while they w: ig for the 

postmen to deliyj^Hi lor 
awaited pifty baca^^^^^p 
that people consider them 
fortunate lo have such altruistic 
custodians of their hard earned 
cash (before y< t point out iha f i 
cheque is only a piece of pa. 
until cashed it is wortrM 
remembering that postal orders 
have to be paid for in advance). 

What harm is there in 
finishings product before 
advertising it' The reasoning 
behind advanced advertising 
WOuld appear to indicate. a 
certain lack of faith in the 
produclflbfoduced. Are 
softwarenouses so uncertain of 
their majMUhai all their 
release s have to be mega - hyped 
for lhen> t© b* successful? A 
game shj^^Hp able to sell on 
its Own rMpHvithout beinn 
dangled carol- like in front of the 
consumer for months on end 

Personally I wait Until I've 
seen a program running before I 
buy it and f suspect many other 
people do too. All the pre- 
production hype is wasted it 
would seem, 

I can understand that 
synchronising the release of a 
product and its advertising has 
its problems but surely this 
situation can be overcome or at 
(east improved upon. Mr Mays 
can sympathise all he likes but ii 
doesn't in any way make up for 
the anger felt by a good many 
people It's about time those 
people got their act together 
because sooner or later 
someone's going to find 
themselves without a paying 
public. 

Martin Wright tea 
CopperfieUt, ChkjweH, Essex. 

fm forty certain fhet 9 
marketing m»n would tetl you 
there is great value m pre- 
publicity and early promotion as 
B means of making punters 
aware of a product. On the other 
hand there is also an unwritten 
rule which says that major 
promQiton that mist** 
availability of a product in the 
shops is a btg Sutler. You can 
have successful sales with my 
little promotion, but again 
statistics show that a carefuf 
build-up is essential to make* 
reel success in all but Uukn 
circumstances. Once the launch 
period is over, I think word of 
mouth is the most powerful 
advertisement anyone can have, 
and the nice thing about that is 
that it's free' A/1 you need is a 
good program. 



&FF 



mi 




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•v V \ 



ADVENTURE 

UPSET 



± Dear Sir, 

In the September 85 issue of 

A CRASH, Derek Brewster 

reviewed an adventure that I co 

A wrote with Hon Lemmon called: 
', Project-* the Micromgn. The 

■** review was quite lengthy and 

A detailed, although Derek made 
several incorrect observations 

A whilst playing trie game, for 
instance he said that after 

A malting a bridge across a 
crevasse using a twig (in the 

A adventure you are only 3 inches 
tall), that there was no mention 
of a bridge being made, it he had 
looked he would have seen that 
there was A TWiG FORMING A 
BRIDGE I If that's not a big 
enough mention then I don't 
know what is 1 However, being 
considerate and thoughtful 
adventurers, we noted Derek's 
points about the unfriendly 
vocabulary, more helpful 
prompts etc, and made many 
important changes to the game. 
We wrote to the Signpost 
section of his adventure column 
and pomtod out the above 
changes, but the letter was 
never published, so we I eh it at 

titatl 

^S^x months later we had me 
good fortune to be approached 
by G lobal Software with sn offer 
|o inciude PrQJBCtrX the 
Mvoftrt)0«an adventure 
CompilatiOTttape which was to 
j cut led Fqu niiost A dventures 
. jsethtue were four games 
it! | We jumped at the offer, 
eagerly awaited the all 
portent CRASH mvtew It 
tufllly appeared in the April 
issue, and to our total 
amazement Derek Brewster had 
not even bothered to re 
ppratse the game in its much 
ed format 1 He gave it 
the same ratings as he 
first time round. 
Now when a game is 
criticised, either fairly or 
Otherwise, you would expect 
changes to be made to that 
game, taking heed of the 
criticism. Well, we made the 
changes, but Derek obviously 
coulon't be bothered to cheat 
and see if his comments were 
noted, so why did he bother to 
make them in the first place? An 
adventure reviewer's job is 
much harder than that of a 
games reviewer, simply 
Because of the time needed to 
solve the game and the 
A brainpower required lo work out 

whether the solutions to the 
A problems are possible to 
. achieve in real life. 
" Tim Hemp, Norwich, Norfolk 

Obviously there "s not a tot I can 
, "-. say to that, but no doubt when 

Derek gets to read his copy of 
v \ thts issue, he' M think of 
, something f 
A LAI 

46 CRASH June 1986 




did me I 




■ Dear Lloyd, 

■ Why, oh why do magazines 

■ have 'Pull-out Supplements'. I 

■ can see no logical reason for 
a them. (But there again, where 



ALL 
THAT 

GLITTERS 



I decided to put p 

•u about the much 
•ttot cassette 
presentation Whilst I dm in 
' big packaging. I i I 
«s should tx> 

i|UOi! QU llltY '.<•••'■. ■ I • • .1 



-« and i 



ssettes to go in these cases 



were offered, thow i 



it n.tf yarnp 



games, 

iHlJ, but 

doesn't t 
away m , 






)l tx>lh <)i 



Dominic Spray Watford. Herts 



has logic come into play at 
CRASH Towers 1 7 If you don't 
break nails or rip up your 
fingertips opening the staples in 
the mag to 'pull-out' the 
supplement, then you do so 
trying to close them up again. 

Once you have pot the 
supplement out, I find That 
within s week the WasteoNjttle 
thing has disappeared without a 
trace I've managed to keeps <v 
watchful eye on RC's little pain 
of a supplement, but with 
'addons' frfim other megs, 
(which will rerna in 
annonymouBBpie case haijl 
been the sarflaMach time: they »y 
have all gone 'Missing in 



So, Lloyd Mangram. let's see 
you wriggle out of (hat one! 
Nicholas Green, Christ church, 
Dorset 

PS Is Derek Brewster as young 
as he looks in his portrait at the 
start of Adventu re Trail? 



No, no, no. 
wrong, the 

'as to add 
:ia 

>tl 



u've got it oil 
tt-put supplement 
mar 

to the issue, 

binding', in 

tons to the mag 
ex act fy what M yew 
rds thai magic figure for 
perfect binding. The alternative 
ts what's catted 'toot*' leaf, fust 
slotted inside the pages without 




Act ion' , Acwi Q Stapled. But r*ie$e always 

'Ah', I hear you cry, 'but if we w.vtf to fail not on the 



didn't put in supplements, we'd, 
have to use 'perfect binding'. 
(Mentioned in the reply to Tony 
Bridge's letter, April 86) Wall I 
have worked out that 140 
(Number of pages in April &&k 
add 24 j Number of pages in RC s 
little number) doesn't exceed 
the maximum number of pages: 
19$' (Also mentioned in Ihe 
reply to Tony Bridge S letter) 



rtewsager> ts ' stands and then 
reader* dpmptein about being 
ripped off besides, just because 
ii says 'puii-out' doesn't mean 
yoertmte to. And vest Derek 
does look that young m real fife, 
in tact the drawing does tittle 
Justice to ha handsome 
dashmgness (okay Derek, you 
own me one now , . . } 
UWI 



I 



TECHNOLOGICAL 
PROGRESS ISN'T ALL IT'S 
CRACKED UP TO BE 

Simon Shepherd's fetter about the delights of turbo loaders also 
sparked off some more ideas on the subject oi 'progress *n 
general. . . **** 

deaJP 



Dear Lloyd , 
Grovel, Mortals. 1 em the 
High Priestess to we shrine of 
the rubber keyed Spectrum. 
Slowly my disciples are 
turning to the Spectrum plus 
and A NORMAL K£YB0AR0I I 
want to hear that all my 
remaining believers are 
writing in to let CRASH know 
the faith in rubber keys is NOT 



Trte almighty Wo:! 
ih Lillington 



Cnaro 



Sarah 
Somerset 



I am writing on the subject of 
turbo loaders So far Simon 
Shepherd is ihe only person to 
write in agreeing with them. 
All other letters have been 



ABRIDGED 
o BRIDGES 

Q The long fatter from Tony 

Bridges complaining about the 
O prttc of the Chmtmas CRASH 
n Special, sparkedsome 
J controversy, most oftt tfrtt 

• surprised to add) favourable. 
m Hmr* are a couple of typical 

• tattan. 



desarvw two page* IP sound off ^ 
your hypocritical crap. Mr Lloyd, ^ 
in the future, bear in mind dm q 
poets ol Ihit couniry who never 

K their letter* aired, and throw O 
likes of Mr Bridges letter* in 
the bin, where ihey belong O 
Jeaon Sehan. StoeJito«-Oi> -_ 
Tees. CleveU nd u 




O 



Dear Lloyd, 
BORING f (Oh no, I hear you say. 
but (uat hear me ouU I am of 
course referring to Mr Tony 
Bridget tetter in issue 27 of 
CRASH, which was two page* 
long (including your answer i 
We didn't rwed to see what Mr 
Bridges was complaining about, 
we already know. The Chnatma* 
Special wsa fantastic and well 
worth the money, Just for the 
poster. Mr Bridge* end all his 
omer hypoerrf ical frieods can 
p* • * oft (We don't need you and 
we don't want you and you dent 



Strong Stuff mdeadf The next 
wnter was somewhat mora 
oolite - , 

CI and £1 .96 for the Christmas 
Special. I mean what hat CRASH 
ever grven tn? Wall ihoy have 
given utLM's Forum. Playing 
Tips, Merely Mangram, Bug 
Box. News Input. Review*. 
Cornpo's. Jetman. Craah 
Cou rsa. Adverts. Top 30, 
Adventure Trait Frontline, LM's 
Hall of Slime, Techmche. 
Previews and Special oWafS r* 
what CRASH hat given us, no 
flop complaining because it's 
worth it! 
Chrfc Brvttoll. ftnrwood, Staff* 

► ••••OOOO 



complaints I have 
experienced no problems with 
Speed lock etc, but I think 
software houses should take a 
look at Du rel \*Saboteur and V 
Jumo Espnt (I bought both) 
tyrve one turboload side end 
t one ordinary load. So if you do 
jrobtems with the fast 
l<an load In the other 
side, 

TurboloarfetsprRSfrnt no 
problems for fTeople w 
interface, twin dee> . fast er 

B root am s, so this svstem 
urall's shoi^d be used more 
often 




them. But what about the 
games they 'nP protecting ? 
Kei/n McCtearn's fatter 
introducing us to wnbf he 
catfed the % ' factor, prompted 
quite 9trt of response from 
readers. 

His 'K factor' is ho Ji 

mist but does haw r«aUtv I 
have been a games player far 
i>vt 20 years playing 
war games, board pa nit-- a end 
latterty comhyter ga m tn on 
iX81 arvilSpei.tfun^J 
Compuier airrif* ere first and 
foremost GAMES The 
essence of a successful and 
testing game re its ability to 



Lertslok in my opinion N 
lensfoked games sail less 

copies than ordinary ones. If involve as completely a* 

50 copies Q*lerfstoked«T*L possible the particip 

ordinary games (eg X >^M The lasting games, those 
i put on sale (hat in ten years time might 




then the ordinary copies 
would sell quicker. And again 
Lensfot poses no problem ftil 
the 007 interface enter the 
code (if yrxftan I and then save 
to tape Hopefulh/ the software^ di 
companies will see this point J 
of view, and will follow 



Durell's lead 

Dave 'Li I bo" Lilly. NaiLsea. 

Avon 

The software protection 
tees continue to flummox, 
te and defy those who 
them and amuse those 
who fmd simple ways found 



in the same class as 
>fy or Dip/om.icy, will 
those that are, it hea it 
good GAMES At the moment 
most Spectrum games 
asjgnors appear to be 
Opntentrstrng on those with 
Hhu greatest v suaf appeal. 




^uchofv*" rt'yiewer*t and 
others anmio/ns*^ 
concecrtraf ed o 1 1 q r a ph >cs and 
the visuai presentation. Very 
little attention repaid to 
pi ay ability or how good or 
mong is (he game cor 
how weft (he game immerses 
the player in its plot or 



whatever. 

So, message to your 
reviewers; all that glitters is 
not gold — pay more attention 
to content rather than visual 

gimmick* ■ 

All Water . Hen lean, Bristol 

Jftere's atwrny:. ,? danger with a 
new innovation, that Hs 
wctmicmi and novelty appeal 
may o verwhvlm actual 
content Thts was clearly the 

•■nth arcade machines 
and then wflh homecomp 
games, t ihmk you're 
absolutely right that the 
'classics' Will be those when 
the game content is good. 
Obsession With the hovmfty 
factor in home coniptrfer 
g*mei was fortunately short 
wed, replaced Ijy a more 
advanced mtermtfn gamepfay 
design and content -at least 
for some programmers, of 
course there are always some 
who think fast sprites and a 
repeat k/ea is sufficient. Left 
hope the medium will survive 
as healthily as novels, not 
necessarily 'looking ' different 
from each other, but packed 
•'•■iff' new ways of looking at 
' ' in b manner that appeals, 
V^erest and pro vokes 

iht 

IS some mare thoughts 
on the subfect . . . 
LM 



Kevin McClearn says that a lot 
of software these days is too 
original for its own good, I 
agree with him in some 
respects, namely the utterly 
boring Deus Ex Machine, but 
■ Kevin also underlines games 
uSuch as Gyroscope, which 
received a r CRA5B Smash and 
whtc h - found to be excellent 

Kevir . then went on to 
menBbn mat there were some 
games which were original bul 
also highly playable such as 
^^^K§r>dJ^^B^ Kung • fu. 
oxf is*. mmando isn't 
orig'ma I r L>aUy it's Ju st a Jazzed 
Up shoot erfWPfnd as for Yte 
. v «r Kung-Fu being original! 
There are millions of martial 
arts games on the market aV 
the moment. ~^^J ^ 

He also men s hj n» the 'K' 
factor, that games without this 
factor are crap. (ike one certain 

Sme he mentioned called 
u~Cet>. which again is mega- 
brill and which received a 
CRA3H Smash Butafter all it's 
just a matter of opinion Isn't it? 
B Charlton, Sunderland Tyne 
St Wear • 

' Yes tftdeed. if is all a matter of 
opinion, anoMwttVkit diversify 
of opinion lite on Earth would 
be very boring {Lloyd's 
tendentious moral for the 
month! 
LM 



V 





EXPRESS SPECTRUM, BBC 



and COMMODORE REPAIRS! 



FREE 
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WITH EVERY REPAIR 



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*3pertrurri5,GrlJ 

(We 09 net charge you tar our 
fancy prarriaas by etwrotnej 
ragh ibwr pnoBF) 
Reputations take time to butd, 
we hM dmt repairing ZX Si "*, 
Speetrurm, QL's. Apples and 
BBC* pnjrWofiaey, tar 2W 
yun - who H coming second? 

, h« UW, «"* WNK-^Wii raptfrt 
' wtt irrTFJlUTtOJUl m* mthoH 

, to crurai! tow pmas tar fa i 

1 repwisl <« g £9n>r> 



FOB HOJMlSTV - w* MywrnWi 
ytsx tiomcuter bangnaMlrvd aid f 

aa* trm a nodwQ wfono uriffi it. m mi 

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for hepijtotidn a heiMjlkess - 
'i tw* £oft« tenm i rlrm 9m. w* t» 
monawi'MBngluaMtyabaitt 
<n« to rcrrath your vkXMh* Th«* 
KwttmtftwFlHi*** it 

nfaamig faulty COfflpiAtTsV. m 

qg» wAng u aaaas ysur 
n40iyai4ed orPir 
iriO nwi Hi^ortintjh CONREC 
OJREST PMFkn FOFUUW 

caanmnc *&*u jam as 



lPOR UW FWCS - m Uf fflfrouw 
fbttm rtctney. i to* * to auumjHP, 

who tbad ■ n a mnuial vd *x w» 

(fwiEioiThtirtrtiocH- Quta^. 

VQt*n%Hf}iftintntV4HtffOlG 

DIGEST 

to, lUUKClaPMmMltMHOST 

PHOFQS«NAL whwi It Cmiw to OKI 
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f *rtw any raomw} n^mn owr trit 

counter hh aS MnuUL SHia in 

^jta*rguaHyW«(*5TT5T 
tumiRMid Mi » amg to pptot*! 
oatn^OUSH Htam jum£ i985 

?ms B why Spteevfi Efln-s earn 

UT4DA CQnlt ^t, SBP BWd. 

Si iiBitfiiiiL i/i*Tiflot Cbtewnr. 
latabr, Odka 'OM. te- 
4UmUUA AUSTtVA BELCXM 
nr(Frrip£,CEftnutfr.H0a4fi0 
wmtT noRmr. fvustan mpu* 



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zaaMat/E- MMa itrSpKtrvnm 

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24HRTURHM0UMO MOOUISflU 
GUAfUHTtf HOHJOOG COSTS 

Because we repair hundreds of 
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Dwying ascoum to you in 
Umer pneas . . Z80A cpu 
£1 50. 41 16 90p. Upgrade 
.feted CI 695 

- w* bring down the pries far 
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fWe may refuse to ravfc* 
computers suftartng fYwn 
a tta rnp ta d 0.1 V rapaaVI 

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Fte)* vm rauHpted Pwt ml mm] 

tor tern jKMTwr 

(For rwt aey emmy «Ju* £1 50 

eana, 

(Sfcunmr by prior MT a nganwi l ) 
Ovjtt matnna rgr *«Wi, 
ISM. i Mid rnoM mtaB of onrnten 



you pa mt uke oua ctwute 

WE VRU, fV^UMN TW QHiTirrEll 

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Phone 061 2241888 
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0PENM0N SAT Sam to 7pm 



^oSShns** What we do today . 
FflK^wrTHouToau^rioN if others d0 tomorrow! 



NOTE OUR PRICES AND WATCH OTHERS FOLLOW THE LEADER 



CRASH J una 1986 47 



ft* 

4 1 




Please ntuii.i youtaMmetl 
somsorv 
Cantpiilt: 
Commodore i 

are. how long will it be 7 
:avejHfcedthJsbr<- <UM i 
s»w it being played on the 
i Commodore and thought H 
looked good when I 

; Soon after ih»i I saw ii 

> again at Boots m Reading I than 
went loth* count! ■■ 

> being done. The rer 
wi v&s and it should b- 

soon, so I thanked the < 
i mariartdanrnvwey'loulirit; 

Thai ias. 1 

Anil i .mi . 

mom 
• then o sign of this 

- emcellpnt gamef H 

Richard HofiniMftay, F Itit, H*nli 

StwiH* isn't it Ifwl tittle i 



• spun to 
• 1 1 wert £ CP fo rne Spectrum 
-. ' ■ I "fte 

program depends heavily on 

the Spectrum 



ARMS AND LEGS 
IN IRELAND 

Deaf CRASH, 

I am writing to complain about 
the price ofCRASH I know 
you retired of people saying 95p 
is too much, but I live in Eir e and 
ihe usual price I pay for Crash is 
£1,43, until last November when 
it was Cl 53, (hen the Christmas 
Special cost 0. 1 2 In February it 
was back again, ft 52 By this 
time i was thinking of stopping 
my order but 1 said I would wait 
and see next month's CRASH 
with the Free Playing Tips 
Special. It was meant to be free, 
CRASH cost me £1S3 that 
month, 

How coma CRASH newer goes 
up in England? I know you have 
to send your copies across th« 
sea and still make a profit and 
change me money for them 
from Punts to Sterling but El .53 
onwards is a ridiculous price to 
pay when £1 .30 at least would 
be a fair price. 

Have you gone mad asking 
this phce? CRASH is a great 
magazine so can you do 
tomaming about bringing down 
the price in Eire? Because many 
Of my friends end I won't be able 
to afford to buy It 
PhOip Curry. Dublin 8 



f sympathise with you Philip, but 
a point needs to be understood 
hers, ft isn't War CRASH who 
decide whet price the Eiran 
shops charge, fndeed we don 't 
actually send the magazines 




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IWh. >i you assume all 

>mlv seem to givi" 
on, For example, 
nt| through the April issue, 
| we lino then almost every I h in u « 
■ to do with games Whiit with 
| Adventure Trail. Ftontiine.Hall 

I of Slime. Playing Tips, 
Signs '.langram 

I and previews of games, "It's in 
ijosi'. games AfiAiN, | 
ASH readers awar>- 
I results for voting about the best 
I games, conn win 

! games. I could go on but I'll iry 
I no! to, Admittedly there is 
, CRASH Couise but I am noi 
i in thu 



an vwhere, that's done b y i 

international distributors, over 
whom this company has very 
fittte control. The best thing lean I 
suggest is for you to subscribe 
directly, The sub does cost a 
little bit more than in Britain 
(because of the exchange rate}, i 
butt think you'll find it stiff works ] 
out much cheaper than you are 
Curren tfy paying by getting 
CHA SH through the shops in * 
fire. 
LM 



FUDGING THE 
iSSUE J 

Dear Lloyd. tefl ■ 

As president of t he We "we tied It 
up to here with LM and if he 
doesn't acquiesce to our 
extremely reasonable demands ' 
we're going to show Mary 
WhitehOuse your December * 

issue and let nature take its I 

course society, I have a few ^m ; 
questions thatl would like to pW i 
to you. if Imay— #g*pill the 
beans sucker or your 
meat; -JlaeV 

1 Why do you always^M^ 
fudge the issue or 2b)f 
smart alet comments 
answering complaints, but i 
accept praise with a 'credit 
where credit is due, ie to me 
smarminess? W . I 

2 Is your pathetic 'me vs Candy ' 
fixation due to the (act that 
Candy is a good-looking, . 
capable, intelligent, worthwhile i 
computer literate and you're 
not? 

3 What do you have against 




vadcrs In fact. I am sure 
lhai very few of your readers 
even read thus section, let alone I 
buy the softw. i 
OG OMblum London IMW1 1 



ily 

BfcathMmes hut yamm 

Oehnttefy Wf- <g's 

scope h\ 

months toe*. 

senous aspects « He 

primary mt • 

think that answers your It 

pretty smipty 

LM 



girts, and did you know that if 
you kit refer to us as 
fellowessea' or 'chapesses' 
again you are going to and your 
days as ornamental heads 
decomposing; on the spikes of 
London bridge. 

4 When j re you going to do the 
decent thing end hand Forum 

over to the competition minion, 

hey? 

5 And this rs the big one, kid -b 
your face covered in warts, and 
rf not prow it and end our nail- 
biting suspense — PUBLISH A 
PHOTO! 

Louise Bags ha we. Wad hurst. 
Eeet Sussex 

t'm shattered. That's completely 
turned rny day, it not entire 
wee*. l\v never knowingly 
t.jdgodfin issue, in facttm 
higmf regarded as a 'straight 
from the she- utdcr man ' fit 
comes from all those golf 
swings}. There's never been any 
'Candy fixation', unless you 
regard just retribution for being 
bunded off your desk a fixation. I 
have "nothing against good- 
fooking, capable, intelligent, 
worthwhile computer literates, 
but we're talking about Robin 
Candy heie. Any linguistic 
chauvinism in CRASH is all due 
to Graeme Krtfd ft never said 
that) and the comps minion (to 
Whom you want me to hand 
over the Forvmt! And as for a 
photograph, now everyone 
knows rm a drunken 83 year-otd 
ex -famous goffer, you know 
iMhy there's no picture. Now 
none of that was smarmy was it? 
LM 



Th.it s i) then lot JlMM I must away uplhehilfo luim/ttiltaur tit 
i sfn^ibly employ - f " itheningoay inpiantingout the runnel 

begins, practising my 250 yarddrtvesand brushing up iLtt green 
] putting techniques In ihe miMiiimn' I nuiy Imtt some turn* tn 

look at some of ihi* tnrihcnniiiui ii'lcase* for Mt'rHv M>ini|i.uii 

| .in, i n<»i ,i L| k > mt i hi? ,in .ide in.ii linn", iit, hit ii i'vi'ii ramw era 
pouring into Ludluw town tf*nirc (m the tnnuel Mav F.nr (see 
ias( year's issues lor luiihi-i dataits)l 
If you have .my comments to make on CRASH, the Spectrum 

immerse, boohs on or M |jm« »ottw«fe, othi»r reader*, 

the finer points ol Li thu. m ludniai procedure t>r atmply tm>l 

iik«' m.ikirit] ,m rvtsteetiilrtl statement on Cartasian 
ni.iihemetfcs, wine to LLOVOMANGRAM THE CRASH 
fOHUM POBOX 10 LUDtOW SHROPSHIRE Sy« 1DB Who 
knows I ni.iy rven reiiil ihi<m 



48 CRASH June 1986 









<m$m, 












' 




i 



<3«£ 



We've ttuned up with Domark, 
the software publishers and 
game marketers supreme and 
Design Design, the program- 
ming Team behind ■ good 
number of very respect able 
garnet, end can now bring you 
the chance to win tame and 
fortune! 

By combining the program 
ming and marketing talents of 
these two companies, a power- 
ful fprce indeed is created which 
ought to take the games world 
by Storm. All that s missing is 
the concept, and once that little 
problem ha* been sorted out. 
there's no reason why a real 
MegaGame shouldn't be on the 
shelves in time for Christmas. 
Which is where you, dear 
CRASH Reader, come into the 
picture. 

This it a competition. The 
is at least £1 ,000 in Cash as 
as a number of very inter- 
_ days out with members 
of the CRASH Team. Domark 
and Design Design. You see, we 
want you to tuppty the idea for a 
game SO that Design Design can 
write it and Domark can publish 
it- Your reward, apart from the 
feme of appearing in CRASH 
end on the inlay of the game 
(which will be produced by our 
very own Oliver Frey by the 
way), comes in the form of loot. 

if you win the competitiofl to 

RULES 



dteign the game of ■ lifetime, 
you are going to receive around 
10% (pending final contractual 
negotiations) of the royalty 
Design Design collects from the 
publishers of the game, 
Domark, This could amount to 
rather a lot of money if lots of 
copies of the game at* sold, but 
there's a guaranteed minimum 
£1,000 pledged for the person 
(or team — involve your friends 
rf you like) who comes up with 
the concept that gets turned 
into a game. 

CRASH readers know what's 
what in the worM of Spectrum 
games, and it's about time they 
were given a real cha nee to have 
their say. Over the page, there 
are a few words from GRAHAM 
STAFFORD or Design Design 
which should prove helpful 
when it comes to putting your 
ideas into order before entering 
this competition He's given a 
thumbnail sketch of the kind of 
things that Design Design need 
to have in order to sH down and 
write a game, as well as some 
pointers to the kind of things 
you have to bear in mind when 
dreaming up a Spectrum game- 
Study his words carefully. 

Take a read Of the Competit- 
ion Rules presented here, and 
send you entry to GENESIS, PO 
BOX 10 LUDLOW. SHROP- 
SHIRE. SYS 1DB, making sure it 



arrives before the 31 tt July this 
year. 

WE'VE GOT PLANS 
FOR YOU... 

Over the coming months we'll 
be following the creation of The 
Christmas Game {working title, 
working title). Next issue, with a 
bit of luck, we should have a 
progress report. Then full cover- 
age of the Day of Judgement 

will follow and once a winner 
has been sorted out serious 
work can begin on actually 
making the game. 

The winner{s| will obviously 
have to spend a bit of time with 
Design Design, discussing the 
game idea further and refining 
the possibilities, and CRASH 
will sit in on the meetings, 
reporting back to everyone efse , 

As soon as the game is in a 
previewable state, a copy will 
be sent to Ludlow, Cameron will 
give it the full photographic 
treatment and ■ Lloyd is booked 
to write a preview. Meanwhile 
The Designer will be let into 
some of the secrets ol getting a 
game into the shops, and 
Domark will explain how a 
game has to be advertised, 
promoted and sold to distribu- 
tors and retailers. A day in 
London at Domark Towers is to 



be cat aside to reveal some of 
the mysteries Of the market- 
place to The Designer, and once 
■gain, CRASH b going to be 
invited along too. 

CRASH will follow Design 
Design, Domark and The Des- 
igner up to the tape duplicating 
factory where thousands of 
copies of the finished game are 
to be produced, reporting on the 
way and means of making lots 
of copies of a single Master. 
Oiiver Fray is servicing his air- 
brush specially so that it'll be in 
tip top condition for producing 
the inlay artwork to go in the 
cassette, and there's no reason 
why The Designer shouldn't 
spend a day in CRASH Towers 
meeting OK and the rest of the 
Team. 

Then the review ol the com- 
pleted version of The Game is 
booked for the November issue 
of the magazine . . . will ft be a 
Smash? We don't know, but you 
can be sure the game is going to 
receive the usual CRASH treat- 
ment. 

Play your part in the creation of 
The Game of 1986. Get your 
thinking caps on, read the rules 
and study Graham Stafford's 
words ol advice. Then gat 
designing. This could be the 
start of something big. That's 
BIG BEE EYE GEE 



1 J This competition is open to anyone in the 
world, providing they are reading this copy 
Of CRASH! 

21 All entries for the GENESIS, BIRTH OF A 
GAME competition must be received by 
CRASH by 31st July 1386 to qualify for con 
side ration by the judges of this competition, 
Newsfield Publications regrets thai no 
responsibility can be taken for late or miss- 
ing entries through (he Post Office service. 

3) All entries will become (he physical 
property of Newfifield Publications and we 
regret that material cannot be returned 
unless accompanied by stamps of sufficient 
value to cover tha return postage chare 



4) Newsfietd Publications pledges that all 
material, ideas end concepts shall be 
treated in full confidence and shall not be 
passed on or used for any purpose other 
than the competition. The overall winner is 



deemed to retain copyright at all times, but 
entry to tha corn petition is subject to 
complying with the terms and conditions 
laid out under these rules, 

51 The winner's name arid photograph will 
be published in CRASH. 

6) The winner will be entitled to a percent- 
age {10%ish) of the royalties received by 
Design Design, such royalties being guar- 
a n teed to be a t least E 1 ,000 over a 1 2 month 
period from launch of tha game. 

7) Employees and Agents of Domark Ltd, 
Design Design. Newsfield Publications and 
their relatives are excluded from entering 
the competition. The decision of the panel 
of judges, which will contain a wholly 
independent judge, will be final and no 
correspondence wijl be entered into. 

8) Entrants under the age of 18 years should 
have the consent of 9 parent or guardian to 
enter this competition, 



ENTRY FORM 
| Please fix firmly, securely and permanently 



to your entry! 



GENESIS: BIRTH OF A GAME 
COMPETITION 



NAME 



I 

I 

I PO BOX 10, LUDLOW. SHROPSHIRE, SYS 

1 1DB 

I 

I 
I 

| POSTCODE 

TELEPHC 
phone!) 

CRASH June 1986 49 



ADDRESS 



[ TELEPHONE NUMBER (if you're on tha 

I 



I 



Tha DESIGN DESIGN crew in Jovial humour thraatan to damage 
our photographer with a hail of elastic bands . 

Seeing at the chaps at DESIGN DESIGN arm the people who are actually 
0OHW to have to writ* the game designed by the winner of the GENESIS: 
BIRTH OF A GAME competition, it seemed only fair and sensible to ask a 
Design Design teamster to come up with some guidelines- Graham 
Stafford drew the short straw . . . 

DESIGN DESIGN 
GAME DESIGN 



Designing a game can be a vary com- 
plex task, ana this piece can only give a 
rough outflna of the task involved. 
Don't take what I say at gospel, I'm Just 
showing you one way of approaching 
the task. There are a number of things 
to bear in mind when tackling the 
Don't be narrow minded in 
— fust because H hasn't 
't mean it can't be 
across the whole 
of decisions you must make: 
a good original Idea In usually much 
better than an old one. 

Sorry, but there are two ma/or restri- 
ctions to game design that apply when 
dealing with any computet: available 
memory site and speed (or, to put ft In 
Das Das lingo. Space and Waft). Be real- 
istic In your estimation* of the memory 
' by your game. A brief ferret 
the games currently available 
should give you tome notion of the 
amount of memory you cam allow your- 
self for sprite storage end mep te you fs 
As for waft, sorry SPEED, the speed of 
a game is largely dependent on the 
amount of memory you have to wang 
about the place (oops! WANG: Das 
Oesonian for 'move'}, as detection of 
collisions and much stuff doesn "f take 
up that much time. When I say moving 
memory this Includes drawing sprites 
end/or lines, scrolling end mil such 
act i v i t ies . 

Bear in mind that masking sprites 
uses up et least twice am much time, 
usually far more in the case of 3D 
games, and also the technique uses 
twice as much memory to atoro the pic- 
tures. Again, have e quick look et the 
games around at the moment to get 
soma idea. Remember, try not to limit 
your horizons too much, but don't go 
silly. There is no way on Eerth you can 
move a pink banana halt the sire of the 



i about without flicker, nor could 
It be dona at any great speed on the 
likes of the Spectrum. The problem is 
not pink bananas, it's BIG pink bananas 
that causa trouble. 

Okay, now wa know the restrictions 
within which we are working, I shall 
pontificate about the mam decisions 
you will ha va to make. 



GAME TYPE 

By this I mean Arcade or Adventure. 
These are not as black and white as 
they used to be, but you must decide 
whether the game relies mainly on 
reflexes (arcade}, or the old gray cells 
working overtime (edventure}. A t 
tul mix of both seems to be the 
popular, especially If the 
side of things is very subtle, tactics 
being the name of the game, not 
pussies. 

Way of the Exploding fist Is a good 
example of a game where tactics play 
an important part. At the other end of 
the grey scale, the Gargoyle (Hello Ted, 
Hi Greg I) Tir Na Nog type games are 
good examples of ercadish (vary 'Ish'i 
games wot require much thinking 
about. 

The game type is probably the first 
decision you will make, and will greatly 
influence the other decisions you have 
to get involved in during the design 
process. 



GRAPHIC REPRESENTATION 

Big bit of /argon meaning "Wots it going 
to look like? .A very important part of e 
game these days, tome would say 
unfortunately big, so time spent here is 



KNIGHT LORE- lots ot 
Masked Sprites here, folks ! 





worthwhile. You mutt decide whether 
to Sprite or not to Sprite, to Mask or not 
to mask and finally to 3D or not to 3D 
Of course there's more to it than that 
and things will be i wa yed be the rest of 
your game definition. Quite often it is 
the graphic technique used which 
determine* the rest of the game. I 
mean, can you imagine trying to play 
Knight Lore without the 'Filmation' 
{really trendy name thatl) 

GRAPHIC TECHNIQUE 

The graphic technique used can also 
vastly Improve what would otherwise 
be a duB game. For example, takm 
Highway Encounter, a favourite of mine 
for quite a while, and imagine It done 
without the 3D masking graphics. Seen 
from above the game would lose much 
of its appeal. To help you decide I shall 
outline the pros end cons of each 
system used so far: 

VECTOR GRAPHICS (linos} 

FOR: Done Brattelesque they 

ere vary fast indeed. 

AGAINST: Some say the representa- 
tion of the objects Is a bit 
vegue. (I can't because 
Simon would do some- 
thing violent to me.) 



PLANAR (flat) SPRITES 



FOR: 



AGAINST: 



Fast and can be reason- 
ably pretty. 

Difficult to gain perspec- 
tive (may not appiy}. over- 
lapping objects are 
usually messy . 



MASKED SPRITES 



AQAmtST: 



By far the most realistic 
way of representing a 
solid object. 

Usually slow compared to 
other forms of graphics. 



Hera are a few examples of games that 
incorporate the above type of graphics 

Without 3D, Vector 

Can 't thins of onefff 

Planar Sprite 

Jetpac and millions, of others. 

Masked Sprite 

Herbert's Dummy Run 

!Mth3D Vector 

Dark Star (GTEi, Stansrrtke, Station, Elite 



Tapper, Match Day 



fatr/tght. 



Sweevo's 
think It's 



TAPPER— frantic action involving Planar Spritos 
50 CRASH June 1986 



Knight Lore 
ana Fatman ftm 
D ot ted Batmen} 

The TirNa Nog series Is an interesting 
example of combining a couple of 
graphic techniques. Remember, there 
ere various ways to approach each of 
the assove techniques and they are only 
given ma guidelines, not rules. 






SCREEN LAYOUT 

Do you want text window** possibly 
scrolling, icon* (good om that, mrmll in 
with reviewing types), pretty pictures 
and for backdrops? In this Category tha 
memory. not the speed Is tha limiting 
factor. A dacant *match of tha screen 
layout?*) it almost amaantial for tha 
purposes of fudging tha competition 
and should form tha basis of your antry. 

PLOT 

Tha rami kiltart Tha plot can really make 
or break a game, am It la tha bit that lias 
alt tha other things your game does 
together r Included in the plot is tha 
overall aim of the game, and alt those 
strange and intricate puzzle* (if you 
want them}. For the purposes of this 
compatrtion, only a brief Outline of the 
plot wilt be necessary. Don't sand us 
any map*, stories or any such like, but 
it you haw them, tell urn in your entry as 
we may ask for them at a later date. 
What we realty do need to know is the 
setting, the objective and the cb*r- 
acterts} involved. To sum up, what we 



WAKE UP YOU LOT THIS IS THE 
IMPORTANT BIT!!!! 
you hi! 



11 A BRIEF description of the plot, incl- 
uding the objective and any other 
essentieibits 

2) A screen layout, labelled if possible, 
with a brief description of what doe* 
what, where, when, why, how often 
and in what colour. 

3} An idea of what type of graphic 
mprmsentation of your 'world' you 
intend to use. You may like to add to 
the above description of the game, but 
we don *t want it just yet as we'd like to 
be able to see over the top of the paper 
work whan fudging this competition. 

tt you do create some extra humph, 
might I suggest much things a* 
sketches of a few of the objects and 
characters In your game, devising a few 
puttie* or possibly do a map if you are 
working on a mappable gam*. Things 
such a* NOISES (never our strong point 
that, Simon doesn't tike them, and I 
object to spending more than an 
evening on themO and the front-end 
are best left tilt last as they are time 
consuming end far I*** important than 
s cr e e n layout* and so on. 

So there you have it. Noddy's Guide 
to Gam* Design- Alt that remains now 
it to wish you luck and ask you to 
■ that the ZBO ha* only got 40 



Graham 



best wishes. 



Helto ? Finished Graham? Yes? O.K. alt t 
want to say is good tuck and asit why I 
Always end up typing Graham's fetters to 
CHASM into my Word-pro I 
Best wishes yoo lot, Psi 



Therm 's a lot involved in getting people to take notice of your latest 
computer game, tt takes more then a few advertisements in the com- 
puter magazines becked up by the odd poster for shopkeepers to put on 
display, as DOMARK have proved , . . 



»J§ 



MARKETTING 
A GAME 



< It came to launching EUREKA, an 
adventure game, DOMARK dipped into 
their corporate pocket and came up 
with €26,000. Not £26,000 to spend on 
advert*, badges, flickers and the like, 
but £25,000 to put in a suitcase and 
give away to the first person to c ow 
ptete the game! 

A* you might imagine, twmnty five 
thousand smeckeroonie* in e suitcase, 
just waiting to be picked up, caught the 
attention of the national pre** as welt 
a* the eye of computer magazine 
odttors On telly, New* at Ten and Blum 
Peter, amongst other programmes, 
covered EUREKA and DOMARK act- 
ually took the loot — with a suitably 
burly security guard — along to the 
1984 Personal Computer World Show 
for all tote*. 

Art the and, a lad by the name of 
Matthew Woodley won the race to 
comptete EUREKA, and was ditty 
rewarded with a giant cheque. 




With Bond, James Bond, a* the star of a 
computer game, Domark had a reel hot 
property with A VIEW TO A KILL. Using 
their power and influence with the 
maker* of the film, Domark arranged 
for the gem* to be launched at Pine- 
wood Studios and they showed the fikn 
to the assembled me** of Pre** People 
two week* before the Royal Premiere. 
Pert of the evening's entertainment 
we* going to be the arrival of a heli- 
copter, which w** scheduled to lend in 
pure Bond Style to deliver copies of the 
gome. Sadly, the heavens opened end 
the whole studio complex disappeared 
under a deluge. The helicopter pilot 
decided that he was staying firmiy on 
the ground! 

One Or two people gat a little weeny bit 
cross about some of the publicity that 
surrounded the launch of FRIDAY 13th 
— a* Lloyd will testify, the Forum pages 
tew quite a bit of action a few months 




ago on tha FRIDAY 13th front. 

Bach cassette box of the gome con- 
tained a couple a t blood capsules In 
best joke shop tradition, and an audio 
quiz on the tape featured sound effect* 
from the BBC archive* and offered the 
chance to win * prize. The game was 
launched in the cellar of one of the 
oldest restaurants in London — The 
OMe Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street. 
The atmosphere was distinctly eerie, as 
the cellar was decked out with 
cobwebs, bats and spiders for th* 
occasion When suddenly . . . 
CRASH! 

Dominic Whmattey, Domark 's joint 
managing Director bust through a 
solid doorway wearing a blue boiler 
*urt and holding a meat cleaver. Eaekt 
went the assembled journalists. An 
occasion they remembered! 

mien they launched GLAD! A TOR a 
combat game with a difference, the 
Domark team were scratching their 
heed* a little for * suitable promotional 
idea. The game was set In Roman 
Time*, beck in the day* when they 
chucked the odd Christian to tha lions 
on a Saturday afternoon and Legion- 
aries stumped around tha place invad- 
ing Europe and the like. 

Not wishing to go over the top, end 
hire the entire cast from Ben Hur, 
Domark settled for tome very tasteful 
presentation swords mode by Wilkin- 
son Sword which th* y hod specially 
engraved end gave away as competit- 
ion prizes. Anyone who complete the 
game, end win* fre ed om for the slave 
who start In theprogram, is entitled to 
a Certificate of Freedom, available by 
pott... 

Naturally, The Designer of the win- 
ning game will be invited *long to all 
the launch event* — quite whet form 
they wilt take depends very m uch on 
the nature, scenario and title of the 
finished game. The Designer is also 
going to be asked to help coma up with 
some fun Ideas to promote the game — 
remember, the more copies it setts, the 
bigger the prizipoos to tha winner! 

CRASH June 1986 51 






SO YOU THINK YOU'RE A ' 
BIT OF A RAT, EH? 



50 Copies 

of CCS's 
DESERT RATS 

to be won ! 



^ who »«° t * D£Sb &?f#m 1 




It's never much fun fighting ■ 
war — fer better to enter inlo 
combat on the screen of your 
Sped mm, That way. no-one 
need get hurt. 

The Desert Rats had a bit of a 
hard time of it one way and 
another during the Second 
Wodd War, but they came out if 
it all quite well in the end. Which 
is more than can be said of your 
humble Competition Minion as 
he wages (wages I wot dey?i 
daily campaign inside CRASH 
Towers, fighting off all the 
divisions ol people who think he 
should be doing even MORE 
work. 

One day I'll get an Assistant 
Minion for ever and ever, and 
then I'M become a real Broom- 
Cupboard General, planning 
competition writing campaigns 
and bombarding my personal 
minion with competition entries 
that need to be judged white i 
nestle safe and sound in my 
cleaning equipment bunker. But 
enough of this idle fantasising, 
on with the competition. 









&& 



. ■ i Winston 

I s»«^ ? 

w»<* 



we 

■■mff\ 
ssss . 



b >iOth 

d) 21* 
«v Which Bnt»s/» ^f^farTd fW- 







pressie 



Mr Masterson, Mancunian Stra- 
tegy Reviewer Extraordinaire 
has awarded the 128K version of 
CCS's game DESERT RATS a 
CRASH SMASH this issue. So if 
you read his review carefully a 
few tips and hints should be 
found which will be helpful 
when it comes to answering the 
questions set out here. 

If you're still stuck for the odd 
answer, then it's time to nip 
down to the library and get a bit 
of an education about a comer 
of World War II! Never let it be 
said that CRASH doesn't help 
improve the minds of its readers 
. . . First fifty entries pulled out of 
the DESBTT RATS competi- 
tion Helmet in PO BOX TO, 
Ludlow, Shropshire, SV8 1DB 
on 26th June this year win their 
senders a copy of DESERT 
RATS. Mark your entries neatly 
on the back of a postcard or 
envelope not forgetting to add 
your name and address and 
whether you'd like the 48K or 
128K version of the game if you 
win. 



52 CRASH June 19B6 









,a ^yoor^ 




F*to 



1 



itn. 



^a** 






^WJjjn 



**«*» 




HANNAH SMITH treks off to 
Leeds in search of the Masters of 3D 

THE THREE 

DIMENSIONAL 

TRIO 





Our visit to REALTIME GAMES SOFTWARE coincided nicely with their second 
anniversary. Real time as bom on May 8 th 1SB4 in 1 he middle of the founding members' 
Final Examinations at Lreds University, From that slightly unlikely beginning, the 
company formed by Ian Oliver, Andrew Onions and Graeme Baira has gone on to 
become the market Wader in the field of 3D games on the Spectrum. 

Working from an office a few minutes walk from Leeds City Centre, the triumvirate 
were taking a breather when we arrived, having just launched their third Spectrum 
game, ST ARSTR IKE 1 1. Not lhal the central heating boiler nest I ing in an anteroom lo (he 
programming chamber exactly encourages breathers — the temperature in the 
Realtime room usually approaches that of a Turkish Bath, and it wasn't long before I 
began to regret putting on my Ludlow Vest before setting out that morning. 

54 CRASH June 1986 



T 



he trio formed al Leeds University — 
probably at the college bar, rather in a 
lecture room on the Computer Science 
course they were foi low i n e , They soon came 
to the decision that ihey didn'i want to work 
for .inyone else after graduating, hut had a 
1 ai'Hy strong idea thai wherever their future 
Lay it was together, and roughly in the 
tii rection of computer games. 

r.ini Duel was their first release and Real- 
lime burst into existence, earning (heir first 
CRASH review in the August 1984 issue. 
Well, they weren't called Realtime at the time 
ot the hunch — in fact they weren't called 
anything in particular so vague were their 
plans. In true student style. Unk Due/ was 
actually completed while Ian, Andrew, and 
Graeme were sitting their Finals at university. 
It was written because it was a protect that 
they were interested in, and was sparked oil 
by their healthy interest in the development 
(il I hree dimensional games, 



HIGH SPEED 3D 

2D Tanlt Duel was previewed at the ZX 
Mkrofair in April 1994 and was soon pro- 
nounced by those in the know as a superior 
version of the Battle Zone clones which 
started with Artie's JO Combat Zone and 
continued with Crystal's Ranmrls Revenge. 
It was certainly the fastest and most colourful 
JD gamp on the Sped r u m . j < j 1 1 me when ID 
games in general were fairly thin on the 
ground. 

Realtime's studenty approach to work is 
sliU very evident in their company philos- 
ophy. Driven by enthusiasm rather lhan 
accountant's margins, il is almost as if the 
games they write are ultimately produced for 
their own entertainment, although Sta/strifce 
and the sequel, Stanlrike 2 were more of a 
commercial venlute than Tank Owl ever 
was. 

Eight months after Jank Duel, Realtime's 
Stan idle heralded a new gensratfdrt of Mfltae- 
frame 3D games for the Spectrum, With its 
fast-moving action and colourful graphics 
the game was stale of the an and, predict- 
ably, a success. The team won their first 
CRASH Smash in December 1964. By then. 
Realtime*' future in the computer games 
market looked promising... 

LOW PROFILE 

It was low profile time on ihe Realtime front 
after the release ol Starstrike. The trio i 
spotted from lime to time, beer mi„ 
hand, at a variety of computer shows but 
little news about their nexl game was avai- 
lable. They were nol basking in well -earned 
glory or lounging around their Leeds-based 
office. Welt, not all of the time anyway. Plans 
were already being made for Stanrrifce 2, Not 
wishing to appear rude, I did hint thai that 
their third Spectrum game was |u*1 a teeny 
bit tale in coming onto the mantel: n was 
soon pointed out that very few people realise 
iusi how many hard sums and hours of work 
lie behind the routines that set such com- 
plicated TO shapes spinning and whirling on 
ihe Spectrum screen, fach level uf the game 



is so different to the proceeding one thai 
even/ section was like a separate game to 
write. "People tend to look at games simply 
as pretty colours and clever graphics, 
uimpldrnod Graeme as we all stumbled out 
of an Italian restaurant, blinking tike moles at 
[he sudden change in light. Back at base, a 
Bow than on the office wall was called upon 
lo support the argument. A quick glimpse of 
the convoluted inter- relation ships between 
the sections of the game was enough 10 
dispel any doubts about the complexity of 
the programming that lips behind it. "We're 
j Iso very lazy," added Graeme, his tongue 
•.»>r\ tirml> in tic cheek. 

Realtime were one of the first software 
houses to emerge unto the market, yet they 
have decided to remain small. To date they 
have onry produced three games for the 
Spectrum. Had they not been templed to 
become a facilities house along the lines of 
Dt-nton Designs who produce games to 
contract, for others to publish? Definitely 
not, sa^d Andrew Onions. Realtime ak 
involved in some conversion work at (he 
moment — for themselves. 

filed under E in (heir filing cabinet, turks 
an Enterprise. A while ago, Ihey agreed lo 
conven games (o run on this machine, 
quoting a price and a three week turn- 
around! After a slow start, they managed lo 
crack the three week deadline, and are now 
capable of knocking the hulk of an Enterprise 
a conversion out in a few days, spending a 
week on (be music to round the protect off. 
Getting paid has proved a little problem,! in, 
and ali rfinee now adamantly insist that this 
line o* work is not one they are keen to 
pursue. The Enterprise is about to be moved 
to the drawer headed T in the cabinet — 
they've found it makes an ewe) lent tray, and 
it's more often seen in the corridor, key- 
board side down, supporting three cuppas 
on their way to the programming zone. 

It's going to be in-house conversions from 
now on — work had just started on (he 
Amstrad version of Starstrike 2, and we were 
treated lo a demo screen or two. Amstrad 
Owners should be in for a treat any day now. 



PTTFALLS 

All (heir success with 3D games on the 
Spectrum has not been without its pitfalls. 
Being such a small company in the modern, 
commercialised computer games world has 
its handicaps. Certain large chain stores are 
only now accepting Srarv'nJce It on their 
shelves, having refused to handle its pre- 
decessor. And a lew hairy financial moments 
were experienced before its release, when 
large sums of money bad been committed il> 
advertising, leaving very little cash to live on 
while the game was finished off. SiuriVnt 
experience was undeniably an asset during 
confrontations with Mr. Bank Manager at 
this stage. 

So far, all Realtime's Spectrum games have 
been in 3D. I tried to pose the conversation 
away from drunken student parlies and 
general crazy, wacky student stunts to find 
out why mis was. "It's mainfy Graeme s 
idea," said Andrew, carefully deflecting the 
question to another part of the room. It's 
dear that 3D games represent a challenge to 
the trio— they seek lo improve their mastery 
of the techniques involved with each sub- 
sequent release. 

'When we start writing a game we lend lo 
go out and buy copies ot similar games that 
are available, so we can see what ihe com- 
petition is like. Then we try to think cif ways 
we on improve on what s already on ih<- 
market," Andrew had lold me earlier over 3 
seafood pancake. Certainly Startfrifce it is 
more adventurous than any other 3D game 
cunenlry on wWdw. Hul how much further 
forward can 3D games realistically gof The 
stage is fast being reached where to get fust a 
tiny improvement on the 3D display, a vast 
amount of additional memory is required. 
It's become a straight play-off between 



speed and memory space. 

Has (he point been reached where 3D 
games can go no further? Nobody knew, but 
it seemed likely, they agreed. I got the 
feeling, however, thai if I'd have asked them 
(he same question just after Tanfc Due/ had 
been written I may have gol a similar answer, 
When it comes lo reaching the limils on 3D 
Spectrum games. Realtime have stubbornly 
insisted on proving everybody wrong. So 
what plans are afoot for future Realtime 
games I All answers to this question were 
tacttully avoided so I bided my time and 
approached the subject two bolt lev of wine 
later. 

MAKING PLANS 

Realtime hasch, sorry, has, two games in the 
planning, One of these will be three 
dimensional and should devekip gamepl.iv 
more, Lois of hard thinking lies ahead. The 
scenario is likely to involve a lead character 
marooned on a planet who has to colled 
various objects in order lo find a way off. This 
will undoubtabfy all change in the fullness of 
time maybe a (RASH preview will help the 
process along: vs, gp( things a little mixed up 
in the piece previewing the first SrarurrJie, but 
the team played along . . , 

The workload behind Realtime, like the 
equity, is split equalfy between Andrew, 
Graeme and Ian in true co-operative fashion 
although Graeme and Ian lend l<> stick to (he 
programming side of things leaving Andrew 
Onions to handle the business? nits. Ibis 
invariably leads to mock arguments between 
1 he three. Ian and Graeme criticise Andrew's 
commercial exploits, while generally leaving 
him to gel on with h. If he gets things "grit, 
praise is not forthcoming, they all have their 
personal specialities although none of these 
extend to screen and inlay artwork, Andrew 
Onions, for instance, specialises in what he 
describes as the 'twiddly biis': sprites and 
that sort of thing 

One of the main reasons why the games 
fake so kmg to produce is because a To! of 
time is spent hanging around waiting for 
each member of the team to finish his own 
individual section, so that the game can 
eventually be pulled together. I he screen 

graph its s ide of th ings i s bei ng mo re si rongry 
eveloped a I (he moment and there is the 
possibility thai a fourth, artistically inclined 
person may be h ired. 

So, what of plans for a Starstrifte Jff (o 
complete a tritogy? (everyone else seems (o 
be doing tnlogies.) Reaction to this question 



was met with a variety of adamant denial 
and "well . . . I don't know's". The general 
consensus of opinion was that a follow up to 
Starftftke ft was highly unlikely — although 
the 5fjirstnfce games have been very succe- 
ssful, tire 3D Masters are not overly keen to 
do a repeat performance and are generally 
sick of the sight of ihem. But then again 
As usual, nothing definite was divulged. 

KLUDGING AWAY 

Although Realtime is predominantly a 
software company, they do dabble in the 
hardware side of things. While we were at 
their office we witnessed Ian Oliver doing 
barbaric ihings with a soldering iron, He was 
trying (o solve a problem. A while ago, he 
came up with a wizard programming whe- 
e/e, that allows programmers to lake 
advantage of a quirk in the 48K Spectrum's 
nuke up to speed up certain bus of code, 
Being A generous fellow, he passed his lip 
around the computer industry, and lots of 
programmers used i| When Sinclair mack 
the I28K Spectrum, ihey changed lis inter 
nats round a bit , and now 4BK programs that 
exploil this little prog ramming wrinkle won't 
run in 4BK mode on Ihe 12B if a Kempsion 
interface is in action. {A full explanation of 
the problem appears in this month's TECH 
TIPS.) lan's confident he can Kludge the 128K 
Spectrum with ,i handful ol reswore sold 
ered onto me edge connector, but he didn't 
have a lot of luck while we watching him. 

And so il was lime to wend our merry way 
back to Ludlow through the spectacular 
scenery of West Yorkshire. Realtime are 
undoublably the best when it comes to 
writing 3D Spectrum games and as we 
pottered back towards Shropshire I was left 
wooden ng what (heir next release would 
really be. Would there be a Sta/strike Hi after 
all or would the next game from Realtime 
incorporate the cunning vertical scrolling we 
had previewed on a beat-up black and while 
monitor that day? Perhaps there'll be a 1Z8K 
ion of SurtFriJce II . . . They could certainly 
make use of the exira memory, 

Andrew Onions, tan Oliver and Graeme 
Baird are sensible fellows. They didn't want 
to bother themselves wilh answering boring 
questions about the Software Industry. They 
were far more enthusiastic to relate me rip- 
snorting stones of their sludeni days, and 
tease Ian about losing an argument with a dry 
stone wall in the company car — he still had 
the black eyes lo prove he lost. In iheir 
position, I think I would have been (oo. 






bin Oliver wrestles with soldering iron and edga connector, to fix ■ Kemptton/ 128 bug 




CRASH June 1986 5$ 



JUST YOU AND A CAR NAMED 

"KITT" 





I I 




_ 




- 




SPECTRUM JSK 
SPECTRUM 48K, 



• 



i 



f55j 




COMMODORE 64 

£8-95 



AMSTRAD 



•:•> 



) 



uaDtono 









FIFTY COPIES OF OCEAN'S 
BATMAN TO BE WON 







e - ^grhem round and you could ** ap 



In OCEAN'S new game, BATMAN has to RESCUE 

ROBIN from the clutches of evil villains, JOKER and 
RIDOLER Sliding down the Bat POLE into the bat 
CAVE, the CAPED SUPERHERO has to FIND the 
various BITS of Sat Equipment that he needs to 
succeed. 

There are one hundred and fifty ROOMS in the 
Batcave, and lots of them are full of NASTIES, contact 
with which sap our hero's strength. 

Last month, the game was awarded a CRASH 
SMASH and now here's your CHANCE to WIN your 
very own copy, courtesy of the nice people in Chateau 
Ocean. 

A Competition MINION'S life is not an easy one, so 
please make sure you get your entries in to the Batman 
Competition as SOON as you can — or at the very 
latest by June 26th so I've got lots of TIME to work out 
who has won. FIFTY copies of the game are on offer, so 
get moving folks! 




Okay. Found all twenty two words in the wordsquare 
now? Good. Stop looking then. Now pop your entry 
into an envelope, making sure you've filled in your 
name and address and send it off to BATMAN 
COMPETITION, PO Box 10, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 
1DB to arrive by 26th June, Good tuck I 




by Rosetta McLeod 



EXAM FEVER! 



Revision software for examinations is being produced by an 
increasing number of publishers Hill MacGibbon and Pan Boohs 
have now got together to issue a set of six Covrw Tutor packages 
covering Physics. Biology. Chemistry, Maths. French and Econo- 
mics at '0' Level. Each attractively presented package contains a 
Pan Study Aid Book, a Student Guide and two cassettes — 
Dtfyrtosttc Tests software and Lemming Moth> 

A core syllabus is covered in each subject, selected from topics 
covered by the majority of examining boards This may cause 
students to became confused about which areas ol the subject 
covered by the packages are relevant to their particular syllabus — 
but teachers should bo able to clarify matters 

The Student Guide gives some useful tips on how to get down to 
serious Studying and contains instructions on how and when to 
administer the diagnostic tests, together with the test papers 
themselves These tests are extremely well constructed with the 
computer monitoring the time taken by the candidate to answer 
each question By respecting a question number, it is possible to 



Change or revise an answer, and the 'next question' key can be 
selected to skip past a question H need be Each test ha? a target 
time, but this is only lor guidance, and the computer tells you at the 
end how well you would have done if you had stopped at the target 
time. 

At the end of the test. 3 Options appear for analysing the mark 
obtained The full analysis option gives the correct answer, together 
with the marks you were awarded and the total number of marks 
available The time analysis is shown by means of a bar graph of the 
time actually taken compared with the target time Quest iont 
answered correctly have the time bar displayed in one colour, 
questions incorrectly answered in another The final option gives m 
lull written report ol performance, including suggestions for further 
work The overall percentage mark is shown at the top of the screen, 
together with the number of minutes taken. If the target time has 
been exceeded, the screen gives the percentage score that would 
have been attained if the test had been slopped at the target time. 

These packages are highly recommended as comprehensive and 
worthwhile study aids 



C»»mc!m« s rial id bright whun it conies to p^irfaypug 
fr.tncjis ' H* '» scored a nwasly 0*. AND it took him two 
minutes O LEVEL FRENCH COURSE TUTOR (ran, Hi!) 
MacGihtHtn and Pan 




FRENCH 

The six Diagnostic Tests in the 
French Course Tutor package 
cover Verbs, and Tenses. Irregu- 
lar Verbs. The Perfeci Tense, 
Making Things Agree, Vocabu- 
lary I, and Vocabulary 2/Com 
prehension While the chosen 
test is loading, the screen 
play lists the Time u will take, and 
the equipment required — Ihe 
test paper, writing paper for 
recording the answers, pencils 
and a watch or clock. Some of 
the questions m the papers 
n^quire the full answers to be 
typwi In, whereas others are 
multiple Choice 

The screen dearly informs the 
student which keys to press in 
Order lo type m Ihe French 
accents, The Learning Modules 
program offers twelve topics, 
i covering tenses, adjectives and 

56 CRASH June 1986 



agreements, negatives and inte- 
rrocjaiives, prepositions, pro- 
nouns and possessive*, houses 
and homes, time, shopping and 
food, and personal informal ion. 
For all of the oplions, ihe screen 
is divided into three: the top half 
is used for pictures and for Eng- 
lish phrases, while the left hand 
side of the bottom half is the 
workspace where the French 
phrase has to be completed, and 
the right hand side is reserved 
for hints 

I was extreme hr impressed 
with the amnuni covered in this 
package and with the way ihe 
material is presented One un 
fort li nn i v bug, though, does 
occur hi ths ridietlivo program 
— if the correct adjective chcrs' 
is inserted in the phrase 'Les 

melons sort plus que les 

oranges', vet i&reji 

and mo hints inform you that the 
correct answer is chers'l 



MATHS 



For the Diagnostic Tesls. the 
core mathematics syllabus has 
been divided into six main topic 
areas Arithmetic, AigeoVa, 
Geometry and Trigonometry. 
Graphs, Probability and Statist- 
ics and Matrices and Transform- 
ations, A calculator is allowed 
for all the tests apart from 
anthmehc- 

The Learning Module pro 
grams cover a variety of 30 
different topics ranging from 
muliiplkalron and division of 
decimals to frequencies, 3-dim 



ensional trigonometry, and de- 
terminant and inverse of matr- 
ices Each section provides the 
student wjh i hi' useful option of 
selecting Notes be lore attempt- 
ing to answer the questions, and 
the examples are then worked 
out step by -step on the screen 
wilh commenis to clarify the 
various stages. 

1 haven't done any sermus 
maths for many years bul I 
found things coming back to me 
after working through the Noirts 
The Study Aids booklet too, is an 
excellent source of information, 
and the package as a whou- 
represents a powerful interact 
ive revision aid 





Hardftih) turns in thv math* packmgm on offer for level 







■ p&»k M C hemic at Fumtutjc tn the CHEMtSTItY 
'. C-wieron '* yotntj to gwt an education At 
thi* f*ttt . , . 



r»'«rr": v* 4i fii * li 




i % o ' c 



■ c 

b i.ihlt 1 * In* 




CHEMISTRY 



The am mam topic areas cowered 
»n 1 he £>i*jrnc>i7«r rests are: 
Kinetic Theory, Atomic Struct 
we; Bonding and the Periodic 
Table — salts, purification, 
adds, bases, metals and their 
compounds: Activity Series — 
electrolysis, reaction rales, 
redox reactions and the chemi- 
cal industry; The Air — gas 
preparations, and the chemistry 
of" sulphur, chlorine, hydrogen 
and oxygen; Mole Calculations 
— carbon and nitrogen, organic 



chemistry, fuels and energy. 

The Sti/tfy A id book goes ove r 
all these topics in detail, while 
the 30 sections m the Learning 
Modules programs break the 
information into manageable 
units. The Hints are pamcuiarly 
good tn this package, and if the 
Wrong answer is typed m, a 
helpful comment appears and 
you are also directed towards 
the relevant pages in the Study 
AidbOQk 



rroric Firttds j rp unciv t discussion m ihb PHVStCS 
fHSF TUTOR Odd tint Cam'% pet toruit magnetism isn't 
interformif wif/p the -,(ittvu*irr .... 




PHYSICS 



Mechanics. Heat. Optics. Waves 
and Sound, Electricity, and 
Atomic Rhymes are the topic 
areas covered in the Diagnostic 
Tests The Loam tug Module 



sections beginning with Equal 



wledge covered m ihis package 
is quite impfessrve, with the 
questions being particularly 



the information presented m a 
clear and concise manner 



a 1 1 1 1 !■•»:{ liM CT>1 i ■ *imii: r -M 



the appropriate page in the 
booklet for help, Physics is now 
such a vast subject that no exam 
syllabus covers more than a 
small part of it A student using 



BIOLOGY 



A very nice touch m the Study 
Atds booklet for ihis package is 
the inclusion of a short Glossary 
at the start of each chapter, and a 
list ol keywords at tfya end The 
chapter on Transport for exam- 
ple, begins by defining Trans 
location and Transpiration. 
while blood, lymphocyte, fibrin 
and ions are some of the key 
words listed at the end 

In this package, five mam 
topic areas are tested: The Celt 
and Transport; Nutrition and 
Respiration; Genetics and Ecol 
Movemwnr and Co-tr 
and Reproduction, Excre 
tton and Temperature Reguiui 



need the 



being followed The sect ton Prs- 
[Hiring tor the £xtjrniri&tiDn m 
the booklet, which gives helpful 



imy^wiiwi ? 



Ail n *--* ■' ■ ,.*UI; L-j 



best of 1 hem ail m the way it 



relates the information ji 
booklet to the questions which 
appear on the screen. In the first 
ing Mndute for instance, 
the top pan of the screen display 
<s divided into two, with the left 
hand section giving iho eitplana- 
lion and refer rtng the siudent ro 
the relevant pages in the book- 
let, while ■ Efclion 
displays a graph of the ind 
lion on which the questions are 
based. 

Another particulady useful 
feature is the information con 
tinned in the package on the 
different types of e*am ques' 
lions the student may have lo 
answer — objective, structured, 
essay and practical queslions, 
and a helpful explanatory lisl of 
(he terms commonly used m ihe 
is ts also given Overall, 
1 excellent revision aid 



Pan 



course 71 



"tors 



Course 




COMMENTS 



For the serious student, these packages represent superb 
value for money What they are most definitely not, is a 
Short-cut for the less able The fact that each Course Tutor 



ilWllWlil VM>tl ^WHtrj nu*l I IV <»1 



the student who is unsure about the precise requirements of 
the exam syllabus being followed, but an approach to the 
teacher would resolve this problem The producers of these 
programs have avoided any temptation to include gimmicks 
or unnecessary graphics to give them more mass appeal. 



■ I ■ 1 ar; aT * 1 a T- laTi T m r m 1 be is ■ i ■TiTTT*! tl fl *m*r *!■ r •■■■ i jj.m 1 ■t-'TI 



Their main advantage lies in the way the computer is used to 



results, and to give practice in answering examination 
questions 



indeed. 



CRASH June 1986 59 



5 IN A ROW 



Kmtfc 



Producer: Hill MacGibbon 

Retail price: £6.95 

Age range: 4 to 104 years 

(well, that's what it says') 



five m g Row is played on a 
board with 1 96 positions set out 
on a 14x14 square, and can be 
played by up to three players, 
tach player, in turn, places a 
counter on the board and the 
firsi to achieve 5 in a row (hor- 
izontally, vertically or diagon- 
ally) is the winner. It sounds 
easy, but the game represents 
quite a challenge, and players 
can also select a 4-in-a-row or a 
i row option 
There are several ways of 
placing the counters on the 
board: the arrow keys can be 
used to control the cursor or a 
pair of cursors can be moved 
along vertical and horizontal 
axes with the arrow keys; if 
that's loo easy, coordinates may 
be entered using the arrow keys 
to increase or decrease the value 
of the coordinates displayed on 
the screen The program on Side 
A of the cassette is a version m 
which an unlimited number of 
counters are available in the 



imposes a handicap — the num- 
ber of counters available is 
limited. 
This is a very enjoyable sua- 



ca»eron 

iove 




tegy game, which has the flexi- 
bility to provide hours of fun. 

COMMENTS 



for all the options of placing ihe 
counters on the board. 
Keyboard play very responsive, 
Use of colour: bright and clew 



SWA ROW from Mitt AtacGiWwn Writ Cam win? 



Graphics; simple, but well- 



General rating: p deceptively towards thinking about whal 

simple game which is useful in others may do, or for helping 

encouraging skills of logical and older children master ihe skills 

predictive th ink rng. Excellent for of coordinates 



telling young children to move 



MASTER WORD 



Producer, Hill MacGibbon 
Retail price; £695 
Age range: any age. 

This is quite a difficult game for 
guessing hidden words correct- 
ly Master Word can be played 
against the computer or against 
another player, and the number 
of tetters {up to 61 in the mystery 
word can be selected. You can 
also choose whether or not to 
play against the dock, ot to have 
sound. If the game is played 
against the computer, it enters a 
mystery Word vvith Ihe number 
of letters you have selected — 
human players can take it in 
turns to enter the hidden word. 

In the game itself, a row of 
dots is displayed on the screen, 
one for each letter in the hidden 
wOid, and the first player Simply 
has to type in any word of the 
required length the computer 
then tells you the number of 

correct letters ifl the right 
position. Ten guesses are 
allowed, but n is possible to give 
up by pressing 1. The computer 
keeps the score, showing the 
players' names, the mystery 
words, the number of guesses 
taken, and the lime taken . 

My only criticism is thai 
SPACE i$ used instead of ENTER 

60 CRASH June 1986 




lo confirm the command typed 
*n, which I found ratnei 
irritating, 

COMMENTS 

Control keys : words typed in the 
normal way. with SPACE lo 
confirm. 



Hrnm. Cavtmton'i working on *om« string* MAS YERti/ORDt 
in this ward ganif . . . 



Keyboard play: slightly slow 
Use of colou r : c Fear and br ighr 
Graphics: limited. 



General rating: en ot joyable 
game for encouraging dunking 
about letters and wo* 



ONLY THE BRAVEST FLY.... 



•J /i i\V 



New. from the author of Rghter Pilot.,, a stunningty realistic helicopter 
simulation that puts you in command of an Apache Advanced Attack 
helicopter. You will learn to take off. to land, to manoeuvre and 
locate and destroy enemy tanks using Hellfire anti-tank missiles. 
You will experience authentic battlefield conditions as you en- 
deavour to carry out your mission and return safely to base. 



BT D.K.MARSHALL 

48K SPECTRUM 



W^v 






guldod mH%iUj* focfceti and iO nm n 
Doppicr navigation and target tracking. 
Day IH9M «Won »y»i« m « 





SPECTRUM 

tntwk 4BK 
Nqjni Giirvw *8K 
FigW Pito! 48K 
COMMODORE W 

Speed King Disk 
Speed King Cassette 
fighter PDol Diah 
Fiflfilpr Pitot Cassette 
AMSTAADCPC464 
Fiariiof Piioi 
Fighlef Pitol Dish 



] £955 
D ES-95 
D E7.95 

Deis 9s 
D ra.ss 
nensa 

□ £995 

□ £6.95 

□ Et3,95 



Cheques parable to Digital integration Ud 

I enclose a cheque/P O to* 

Nam 

Andrea* 



.Totej 



Pleas* dftbil my A-eeGss/Visa card no 

a* 

Exptry date, 



Trade and Export 
enquiries we lco me. 
Lifetime Gujfarrtee. 



VATandp &p inclusive *ithi*i UK (Overseas nc 55p pwcassettol 



H -""™'" DIGITAL 
INTEGRATION 

Watchmoor Trade Centre. 
Walcrtmoor Road, 
Camberley, Surrey 
GU1S3AJ 





Clocks, T Shirts 
and Copies of the 
game to be won 



Design a recipe for 
and win! win! win! 



Popeye's a very different kinda 
hero. None of this "wearing 
your underpants on the outside 
of ywir trousers" stuff for HtM, 
oh dearie, me no. All he's inter- 
ested in is protectin' Olive Oyl 
and Biffing Bluto the hairy bed 
guy. 

It's not too surprising that the 
heroic sailorman quaffs spinach 
every time he needs a hit of 
boosted muscle power — it's 
definitely very good for you 
That's why your Mum keep* 



To merit tha event of the re- 
launch, the nice Mr Neild (Mar- 
keting Big Cheese et MacM's) is 
offering some very tasty prizes 
indeed to the winners ol this 
competition. To enter, we'd like 
you to get into Chef Celehre 
mode and dream up a delicious 
new dish featuring spinach — a 
little more imaginative than 
Spinach on Toast, or Spinach 
and Chips if you don't mind. 

Come up with a realty yummy 
recipe (o take the tedium out of 




going on at you to eat up your 
greens, you see. 

But over the years, just ripping 
the top off can after can of spi- 
nach and gulping it down must 
get a bit boring — let's face it, 
mouthful after mouthful of una- 
dulterated Greenchomp makes 
a monotonous diet realty — just 
like an endless diet of fizzy pop. 
crisps and sweeties gets boring 
after a while (unless you're Gary 
Liddon. Foodaholic of this Par- 
ish who eats anything that 
comes within grabbing range, 
no matter what I. 

Popeye. the game, first came 
to light last year; published by 
DfcTronics, it was awarded a 
CRASH Smash in the September 
issue. Now Macmillan have 
acquired the rights to the game, 
and are re-releasing it — on the 
Commodore 64 as well as on the 
Spectrum, And a very jolly game 
it is too! 

62 CRASH June 1986 



spinach straight from the can for 
old Popeye the Sailorman. Send 
us you recipe, or a drawing or 
maybe even s photograph of 
your culinary creation (but 
please, NO SPINACH!! 

The two most scrumptious 
spinach recipes on the day of 
Judging will win their creators a 
Popeye alarm clock, a T shirt and 
a copy of the game. The next five 
entries, in order of yumminess 
win a Popeye wall clock, T Shirt 
and copy of the game, three 
more runners up are set lo have 
a T Shirt and copy of the game 
and then no less than 40 runners 
up will have to make do with the 
game <x\ its own. 

The day of judgement falls on 
26th June for this particular 
competition, so make sure your 
entries arrive before that date at 
POPEYE THE SAILORMAN 
COMP, PO Box 10. Ludlow. 
Shropshire, SYS lOB before that 




f 



n 




date. And if the winning entry 
looks like it'd be a really good 
feast we might just rustle it up 
end feed it to Mr Liddon to keep 
him quiet (and healthy) for a 
while I 




J* '< 



A 





nn 







. ^ 


^3) 


ail 


H 



L 



>4 




^|4TM«^ 



/ 



ii 




<&: 



[i :- 



m 






Malt Order- Send cheque/ 
postal order to:- 



SPECTRUM 48/128 



I Av,„, b .c ,oon tor th« VMSTR AD & COMMODORE 64 

tSf P R D B E 5 D FT U fl R E 1SS Mitcham RoacLLondon SW17. 

-^ SELECTED TITLES AVAILABLE f BOM SOOTS W H SMITHS UNO GOOD ftORWAflt ftETAIlE«S Te 1) U I' O / rfil *7 I / *7 




After many months of sterling work as Chief Tip Merchant, 
Robin Candy has departed from CRASH Towers for pastures 
new. Lloyd's feeling a bit glum at the moment — rather like a 
dog without fleas — a* there's no-one tp engage in running 
warfare with, over who gets the Biggest Desk and so on, 

Hannah Smith joined the CRASH team last month, and as 
she has done a wonderful job of covering Graeme Doc 
Marten Kktd's office floor with bits of paper, broken 
umbrellas and files, she's been volunteered to take over the 
PLAYING TIPS. (And sit next to Lloyd, starting next month!) 
So it's over the the computer world's first and only female 
Take rt away, Hannah f (and that mess. Pretty please ) 



,bitoUM«pSp^r 



h *" ! ~Z ouiek'silva tthe origin- ^'^..ntly coveting 



a rest o( the 






r n yum " — r 

: Z « *. win** «v**irX^^ 



award, and gets tz« «v toUP | eo 1 mmut 

^ iXJff **JnT d „ 4B «a l*t *i* month for 

W JU all th-a- mjj* ^Jghi into thehps: 
[ wittering o^**™** 9 * 



THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING FIREMAN 



Well, we only reviewed Master 
Tronic's incredible Shrinking 
Fireman last month and already 
someone has written in with a 
complete solution to ihe game. 
There we all were, agonizing 
over whether Sid wou Id ever be 
unshrvink and in wnipr. Mark 
Deavaux from Fetcham in Sur- 
rey with a complete guide det- 
ailing which objects to collect 
and whore to rind them. As the 
game has only been out a short 
while, I'm no! going to give all 
the secrets away : here's the first 
hall to help you on your way teat 
you loose steep about how to 
unshrink poor, shuffling Sid. 



From the start of the game go: 

1 screen right, get I D card 

9 screens right, get skeleton key 

7 screens right. 1 screen up, 2 

screens left,! screen up, get set 

of keys 

1 screen down,, 2 screens down. 

drop skeleton keys 

1 screen down, 9 screens right, 

get blue key 

1 screen up, gal part Two of reck 

1 screen down, t screen left, 

drop set of keys 

3 screens up, get pan five of rack 

3 screens down, S screens left, 

drop ID card 






WAY OF THE TIGER 
Unarmed Combat 



Thanks to everyone who res- 
ponded to (he appeal for hints 
on Gremlin Graphics' Way ot the 
Tiger — I've been battling hard 
with itl Hare's the way Damian 
Rice of County Tyrone. Northern 
Ireland gets through the Unarm 
ed Combat section, Da mi en also 
wants to register a claim for 
Lloyd's Hall of Slime, as he says 
he completed the game on 19th 
April . . . 

First Ninja walk towards him 
and deliver a flying kick followed 
by a couple of low kicks and then 
finish him off with middle kicks, 
Goblin a couple of middle kicks 
to begin wfth and finish him off 
with tow kicks 

Spectre a precise Flying kick 
changes the spectre into a gob- 
lin. You can then finish him off 
with the middle kick technique 
Rhino-Man alternate between 
mid kicks and low kicks. Don't 
bother attacking his head be- 
cause it's too welt protected. 
Second NinJB you have to be 
quick with this one. Deliver a 
couple of flying kicks, then 
middle kicks and finish him off 
with more flying kicks too 
Second Rhino man middle kicks 
again. 
Giant jump towards him and 

Suickly switch to flying kicks 
eep bouncing back and kicking 
him. With these movements you 
should only loose one or two 
Inner Force points 



Quite a few people have written 
in saying how easy they found 
Max Headroom to complete, and 
in case you can't wait for the re- 
ward that comes on the other 
side of the tape, there's a POKE 
which a Mows you to access the 
Mrnmax bit without completing 
the game. If you're still having 
problems with retrieving Max in 
the mam game, here are a few 
hints and tips sent m by Steve 
Titbury from Leighion Buuard 
in Bedfordshire: 



When first using the tift it's A 
good idea »o start light in gup ihe 
circud with the correct digit 
when the timer reaches 50 as by 
the time you get it lit up, the 
timer should reach zero making 
the lift move straight away This 



refresh the display every time 
the digit starts lo fade away. 

When you reach floor 200, 
Steve advises you to gain access 
to floors 200 through to 209 as 



Each floor requires you to lighi 
up the LED with the last number 
of the floor to which you want to 
g a in access. Below are the floors 
with their respective codas: 



200- E: 1,2,3,4.6 

201—1 r &, 7 

202-2:1,3,4.6,7 

203-3:1,4,5,6,7 

204-4:2,5.6,7 

206-5:1.2,4.5,6 

206-6:1,2,3,4,5,6 

207-7:1,5,7 

208-6:1,2,3,4,5.6.7 

209-9:1,2,4,5,6,7 

210 - i : 2, 3, 4 (COMPUTER 
LABI 

211 — P : 1. 2. 3, 6 r 7 iPflESl 
DENTIALCODEI 



Anyone who has Successfully 
completed Max Headroom will 
know that the reward is access 
to side two of the cassette and a 
personal message from Mmm 
max himself For those of you 
who have so far failed to com 
pie it the game and are desper 
ate for a few well-chosen words 
from Mr Headroom, here's a 
routine from Chris Jeirnan 
Turner of Derbyshire 
enables you to break inio side 
two of the tape wilhout having 
to finish the game first 



10 PAPER INK 0: BORDER 

CLEAR 66457 

20 FOR g 655 19 TO 

65&3S READ a POKE g a NEXT 

30 RANDOMIZE USR 65519 
40 DATA 243. 55. 62. 255, 22 1 , 
33. 0. 64, 17, 1 10, t», 205. 2. 6, 
195.0.128 



64 CRASH June 1986 



=FS 







C? 



1 




MOVIE 



Quite a few maps and t<pt have 
come in for M.O.VJ.E, but Toby 
Dolg's wore about the most 
comprehensive, so here they 
are. Still ore problem, though: 
does anyone know where the 
second door is? If you do, then 
let me know. 

If ff you find Vanya. kill her 

2) If you find Tanya, do whatever 

she says 

3} Near the start of the game 

there is a room with a parrot in it 

and a knight guarding the door. 

Get rid Of the knight by saying 

"open", This makes the knight 

mgve out of The way, 

4) In one of the alley* there is a 

tcnighi who blocks the way to 

approximately 70 rooms. To get 



pe*t him, drop a bottle between 
you and the knight and walk 
forwards pushing the bottle. 
When you are next to the door, 
grab the bottle and go through 
the door 

51 You may have come across • 
password puzzle. This is used in 
one of the rooms which hea a 
knight guarding a door and two 
rolling T»lk. Say "puate" and 
the knight moves out of the way 
G| When throwing a bomb, it is 
highly advisable to move out of 
its path, or you'll gel blown to 
smithereens with si. 
7) When you meet a goodie, 
keep saying "God bless you". 
This extracts information from 
them quite successfully. 



SAt COMBAT 

For everyone frustrated at being 
beaten mThe Way of the Pointy 
Stick er .. Sai Combat Brian 
Russell of Falkirk has sent tn 
POKEs that give 25& lives, If you 
cant beat those pointy-stick 
wielding w^rriora now, then you 
never will. Unfortunately, this 
routine does make the screen a 
brt messy, 

5 CLEAR 24610 

VD INPUT "number of lives (1 to 

255)' I IF!- 1 OR r 255 THEN 

GO TO 10 

15 CLS PRINT "PLAYS Al 

COMBAT TAPE FROM START" 

20LOAD "CODE : POKE 66364. 

201 RANDOMI7E USR 65340 

25 POKE 32421, 1 RANDOMIZE 

USR 23450 




SOUL OF A ROBOT 

Here's a poke for i nhnite lives fo r 
Soul of a Robot. The number of 
ives you have — entered in line 
70 as the value for N — are 
actually registered on screen as 
'0', but don t panic, you do get as 
many as you asked fur. Ihej 
routine appears anonymously, 
as the relevant details went 
missing. Thank you, whoever 
you aref 

10 REM Soul of a Robot poke* 

20 FOR p = 23296 TO 23329 

30 READa POKE p, a : NEXT p 

40 PRINT * PLAY TAPE AFTER 

BASIC" 

SO RANDOMIZE USR 23296 

60 DATA 17. 0, 27, 221, 33, Q r 64, 

62, 255, 55, 205 . 86, 5,1 7 . 8S, 1 52, 

221.33.156,99.62,255.55.205. 

86 5 

70 DATA 62, N. SO,2l2, 100. 195, 

T56,99 










—61 



KEVi 

X OftWCTT a hkcmex 

P pnjHtfSi G &uqRf» 




Mf? OCWftLEP W WnwN BY 
fcpd*. WILSON 



CRASH June 1986 65 



A PART TWO PAGES 70171 

M 




CYBBRUN 

Here are some hps to go with the 
POKE Supplied by Mike Smith 
(good surname that!} To u» the 
plasma ray pic*: up the object 
shaped like two U'«. To pick up 
the sail, first get the radar dw 
shaped object. The arms for 
grabbing and collating rods* 
pieces must be collected in 
order and dropped onto a plat- 
form located on the surface m 
far away as possible from the 
start. A rake shaped hit is first 
followed by a chequered twin, 
then two pieces one with CViO 
written on it and lastly with 
UtTl. Now pick up the fins, one 
of which must he taken before 
the other and then followed with 
the net- 1 ike doobria and topped 
off with the nose. Zapping the 
crystals with the plasma ray will 
now fill up the net and when you 
turn yellow you can fly into the 
rocket with the sail and take off' 
Initially, all pieces remain in 
the tame place, so now find the 
booster* and add thorn, pick up 
the photon gun (ram the cloud 
to the right gf start end get the 
two lis found right of here. Take 
die arms from the mounisin on 
the right of the third hole from 
the start. Ffy down here and get 
the next bit. Return and drop this 
and go left to the ctoud near the 
mountain and take the plasma 
ray. Fry beck to the first hole 
from the left of start. At the 
bottom go right as far as poss- 
ible before going down further 
and following the floor until ihe 
second bit shows up. Take th*s 




BombJack has been around 
long enough now for me to 
reveal these pokes from Jason 
Emeades of North flee tin Kent If 
you type in the following routine 
Then it gives you infinite lives for 
both one and two players. 

10 CLEAR 2987? 
20 LOAD "CODE 
M POKE 66274, 71 



beck to your booty pile and drop 
it. Next is the second hole to the' 
right. Down and right, down and 
left end down and right again to 
find the CYLO piece. Return this 
as previously and then fly left to 
find the UTL 1 piece on a plat- 
form near the first mountain to 
the left Return this m the drop 
point then recover the fin from 
the first mountain to the right of 
start along with the radar dish 
from the doud just right from 
here. Drop these as before and 
collect the other fin from where 
the plasma gun was. Now fly 
down the first hole to the right of 
start. Down and right wIlFuke 
you to the net in the 5E corner. 
Blast about ton crystals as be- 
fore until you turn yellow. Drop 
it off as usual then return as the 
nose COne is down and right, 
down and left from hare, take 
that back and collect the sail 
from a Cloud to the right of th# 
first bra mountain to the left 
Fdhow me Same routine with the 
tail and presto— take off 1 1 



if you've played Cyberun to lots 
of deaths, then here's a little 
proggy from Michael Smith of 
Loughborough that stops you 
dying. Handy, eh? 

10 LOAO ""CODE RANDOMIZE 
USH 24576 PAPER PRINT AT 
19. 0:LOAD"" CODE: POKE 
23446, 62:POKE 23447, 175 : 
POKE 23448 50 POKE 23449. 12 
: POKE 23460, 141 POKE 23451. 
195 : POKE 23462, UB: POKE 
23463, 32 RANDOMIZE USR 



40 POKE 65236, 70 
50 POKE 66237, 66 

60 FORI 65517 TO 65535 
70 READ a : POKE f, a ; NEXT f 
SO DATA 062. 000, 050, 086. 191, 
033. 008, 252. 017, 240, 255. 001, 
241, 140,237, 164, 195, 075, 193 
30 RANDOMIZE USR 65465 



Quite a few of you seem to have 
been working hard on tD\ Nu 
Wave's first release. Here are the 
keywords for five of the moods 
in the game — if you still haven't 
sussed what makes >D tick by 
next month, I'll be printing iho 
rest of the clues in the July issue 
i Thanks go to Roland Allen from 
| Leamington Spa, Kevin Devinc 
from Scarborough and Matt- 
hew Musgro ve from Brack nel I i n 
Berkshire for kindly supplying 
me with these tips 

1) A drowning Austrian Mood 

lunatic Keyword: Hrtler 

21 i was sf*ot once Mood: angry 

Keyword: bullet 

31 He wss nailed ro me Mood: lost 

Keyword Jesus 

4| Ten taws were on me Mood i 

scared Keyword: command 

menls 

51 1 drowned a crV&oa uon Mood 

rotten Keyword: Atlantis 




SPELLBOUND 



Last month, part of the solution 
for Spellbound was published 
along with a plea for anyone 
who had completed the game to 
write in. Unfortunately, no-one 
seems to have got through the 
entire game, but here are some 
tips to be going on with from 
Rouven Pnedon who lives in 
Ashford, Middlesex. These will 
enable you to get through 76% 
of the game. I ve been playing 
away, and should be able to 
come up with the last 24% in 
time for next month's column I 

CASTING SPELLS 

CRVSTAUUM SPECTRAUS 
Using the map printed on page 
66 of the May issue to get your 
bearings, first get the three 
Crystals — one is found in room 
B5 h another in room AB and the 
third in D8. Take them to room 
F9, and get the Crystal Ball from 
the lift, then take the Elf Horn 
from Samson. Now take the 
While Gold Ring from room OB. 
go back to room F9 and summon 
a character. When it appears, 
give it the Crystal Ball, pick up 
the White Gold Ring and cast the 
spell. You will also need the 
Wand of Command from room 
A9. Throw a 13 three at Gimbai 
and he will be freed. 
CANDUUM ILLUMINATUS 
Get the Candle from room C2, 
the Shield from room F2, the 
Four Leaf Clover from room A2, 
and the Wand of Command 



from room A9. Go to Rosmar 
(Level A), drop the Four Leaf 
Clover, go to room F3 and get 
the Pocket Laser Go back to 
Rosmar and give her tha Pocket 
Laser. Cast the spell NB The 
Clover must be on the floor, 
ARMOURtS PHOTON ICUS 
This will enable you to go in 
rooms Bfi and C3 without the 
Glowing Bottle. 
FUMATKUS PROTECTI U M 
Get the Power Pong Plant from 
room G2 and the Red Herring 
from room C7, Take them to 
Florin and cast the spell. You will 
now be able to go into tha gas 
room £3 without being killed- 
PAOJECT PHYSICAL BODY 
Get the Glue from room E6 end 
the Broken Talisman from room 
F7. Give both to Florin end 
command him to help. Take the 
Talisman back from him. Get the 
Crystal Ball and cast the Spell. 
More next month .... 



Here's a useful POKE sent in by 
Mark Fletcher of St, Albans in 
Hertfordshire for infinite energy 
and lime to make Magic Knight's 
task a mite easier: 

5 CLEAR 26060 
10 PAPER0 : BORDER : CLS 
20 PRINT FLASH 1 ; AT 9, ; INK 
7 , "PLAY SPELLBOUND TAPE 
FROM START" 

30 INK : LOAD "'CODE 16384 : 
RANDOMIZE USR 23296 
50 POKE 55066,0: POKE 55070, 
POKE 5507 1,0: POKE 55072, 
: POKE 27671 . : POKE 36133. 

| 60 RANDOMIZE USR 26627 



68 CRASH June 1986 





s> 



1 



GREEN BERET 



m 

ac^nc - objects 
farce fields, 

- disable force fields, 
teteports. 
reteport keys 
fuel 

- master refuel urit 

- return to base trit 



Here's a rninilip from Brian 
Smyth of Londorider ry in North- 
em Ireland. As you Lamo Icj the 
last lorry with a rocket on the 
beck Of >t climb up the ladder 
and move to the riant. Then lis 
down and face the (eft. If you 
keep the fire key pressed down 
st (his point you can't lose any 
lives and any soldier that has the 
misfortune to attack you 
killed automatically and you 
score goes up and up and up 
By the way, has anyone man 
ayed to get higher than the first 
three levels i n Green Beret? if so, 
then writ© and tell me. oh, and 
ckm'( forget to include any tips 
you've discovered along the 
way 



Adrian Singh supplied the foil 
owing poke, saying in his cov 
■■.■rmg letter thai <( was tried and 
lasted, We tried it, tested it and 
with a bit of fiddling about with 
the CHECKSUM number, man 
aged to gel it working! So here is 
a working version of Adrian's 
Green Beret POKE that gives 
you infinite lives. 



5 REM GREEN BERET POKES 
10 RESTORE LET TOT 
20 FOR F= 50000 TO 50 169 
30 READ A POKE F, A 
40 LET TOT= TOT - 2 * A : NEXT F 
SO r TOT- -38896 THEN PRINT 
ERROR H DATA ...'*: BEEP 1 , 
1 STOP 

60PR1NT AT 10, INSERT 
GREEN BERET MASTER TAPE" 
70 PRINT AT 12, 0, "START 
TAPE 
80 RANDOMIZE USH 50000 

100 DATA 6?. 255.55, 17. 186 

101 DATA 6, 221, 33. 203. 92 

102 DATA 20, B, 2 1 , 2*3; 62 

103 DATA IS, 21 1, 254, 205. 90 

104 DATA 5, 48, 233, 243. 237 

105 DATA 94, 33. 140, 19S, 229 

106 DATA 33, 171,98,229,51 

107 DATA 51, 17.195.130,1 
IDA DATA 20, 3, 33, 253, 94 

109 DATA 253, 33, 17,98,221 

1 10 DATA 33, 218, 99, 62, 202 

111 OATA237, 79, 195. 171 , 98 

112 DATA 1,230, 2, 17,241 

113 DATA 130, 221, 33, 0, 

114 DATA 253, 33, 0, 0, 49 
115 DATA 62, 255. 33, 177, 195 

116 DATA 229, 33. 231 , 130, 229 

117 DATA 51, SI, 33, 241, 130 
110 DATA 62, 176, 237, 79, 195 

119 DATA 231, 130,33,241, 130 

120 DATA 17, 193, 138, 1, 92 

121 DATA 0,237, 176,33.212 

122 DATA 136. 34,217. 138. 34 

123 DATA 221, 138, 33, 202, 138 

124 DATA 34, 229, 138, 33. 239 

125 DATA 138, 34, 249, 1 38, 62 

126 DATA 195, 50, 13. 139. 33 

127 DATA 223, 195, 34, 14, 139 

128 DATA 195, 193, 138, 33. 62 

129 DATA 0. 34, 129, 133, 33 

130 DATA 50, 92. 34, 131. 133 

131 DATA 33, 164, 62, 34. 133 

132 DATA 133, 62, S3, 50, 135 

133 DATA 133. 195, 84, 133, 



CRASH June 1986 69 



3CS1N WAST PTJRT H%Itt— ^e?^r A\ONTH,„ 






^ 



I 




north a plea want out for 
anyone who had hints and tips 
for SWo«fc and Sorcery. Well, 
quite a few people sent in 
morsels of advice, but one per- 
got in touch with a set of tips 
are completely correct. How 
can I be sure they're absolutely 
no-questiorva bout-it-correct? 
Because they were given to me 
by Mike Simpson The man who 
wrote Swords and Sorcery, So rf 
anyone knows the sol ution to ha 
game I suppose it ought to be 
hm Just hope he doesn't want 
his £20 worth of software for the 
June TOP TIP I 

Going Shopping 

In the armoury it is possible to 
select any item as your last 
choice, even if you can n ot afford 
it, The prices a re as f ol lows: 
sword: 20 dragons teeth 
spear: 9 dragons teeth 
■tiff: 14 dragons teeth 
sfcMd; 16 dragons teeth 
armour: 40 dragons teeth 
helmet: 7 dragons teeth 
gold: 20 dragons teeth 
wine : 5 d regons teeth 
pie; 8 dragons teeth 

Remember 

Food is very handy because 
there is very little of the stuff 
about. 

Successfully disarmimg a trap 
increases your thievish abilities. 
Smashing a chest decreases 
your thievish abilities, but can 
increase your strength. 
Hit points are also increased a* 
you kill more monsters. 
Practising JUMPING can 
improve your jump skill but 
makes you hungry. 
RUNNING makes you hungry. 
FOOD doesn't make you 
hungry I It's a valuable resource. 
Don t use it all in Boom 61. 

Fighting 

If the "FULL EFFECT" message 
doesn't appear when you 
firebolt somet h ing , or the 
'EFFECT RESISTED" message 
pops up, the target may be 
totally resistant 

If, when you hit a monster 
"EFFECT RESISTED" appears, 
than it is immune to blows from 
the weapon you are using — try 
something else- 

A few points of unarmed 
combat skill gets you the 
defence DODGE 

Things To Do 

In The Dungeon . . . 

Take cups to the Banquet Hall 

(room 74). 

Take all food to room 61 . 

Get the key from room 66, 

Watch out for the pit in room 66. 

Get the RING OF JUMPING from 

room S3. 

Don't use the book in room 84 tit 



permanently cuts down your 

statistics!. 

You cannot gel through the gap 

in room 89, so don't waste time 

in trying. 

Monsters and Fighting 
Them 

Get the monsters to hit you in 
melee. Every time you start a 
battle your vitality is increased, 
con versely, every time a 
monster starts a battle it is 
decreased. 

Villainy adds to the monster's 
hostility while holding a magic 
weapon does the opposite. 
Holding the magic staff doubly 
so. 

Moving towards a monster 
can scare it. Moving away can 
make it bold. 

Hitting or firing at a monster 
makes it very angry. 

If you started the last melee, 
the monsters get angrier and 
they become more hosti le when 
your character is carrying quest 
armour parts. 

Monsters become more 
courageous and less hostile 
when you get involved in a 
conversation, but their courage 
and hosti lily both increase 
sharply should you be blind end 
more so if paralysis is your 
problem! If you are wounded 
they become more courageous, 
but may be less hostile. 

Magic Numbers. 

Once in the game you can keep 
track of your character's 
statistics via the magic 
numbers. Their meaning (in the 
order in which they appear on 
the screen) is: 

DEFENCE (Armour I 
FIGHTING SKILL 
THIEVISH SKILL 
MAXIMUM MAGIC POWER 
UNARMED COMBAT ABILITY 
STRENGTH (Physical) 
DAMAGE BONUS (Weapon) 
SPECIAL DEFENCE CODE 
MAXIMUM H IT POINTS 
JUMPING ABIUTY 




STARSTRIKE POKES 

PhH Churchyard his sent in 
these pokes for infinite every- 
thing in Realtime's mega 30 
game, Staratrike t Beware, the 
routine doesn't want to work on 
the 128K machine in 48K model 




Knight Tyme 

Here's a mini hint for anyone 
who has a copy of Knight fyme 
and is a little stuck about how to 
get I he space ship's crew to 
acknowledge their existence 
Ask the Transputer, Derby 4 for 
help and it will give you a blank 
ID card To get this made offic- 
ial, find the camera and a roll of 
film Find a co-operative robot, 
hand over the camera anri the 
him and ask for help. There will 
then be a FLASH on the screen 



ynANZAMANTI-nPf 

everyone who has playact 

played and played Tram 

here's s little something 

Pawl Loogrfdge of Ports- 

'jlnslTyPaulstarrf 
into the workings 
tii at for some practk* 
Intending to fmd a 

'•ttvt*. Unto 
dkfnt succeed, but he 
these POKE* * 
spice up your game ol 
Am a link 

28810, makes the < 

81573. makes it even 

POKE 27398, makes the game 

K faster, 
usual put tha PO>o 
before the RANDOM 
statement Have fun . 



as the picture is taken 

Take ihe photo from the Robot 
and read ii to check the photo- 
graph is actually of you and not 
of some fluff- ridden corner of 
the space ship. Have a fumbta 
with the glue and the photo until 
you have an accident and the 
photograph gels stuck to the ID 
card Wear ihe ID card and sud 
cUrnly everyone will start being 
everso, averso nice to you. 



WINTER GAMES 

Here's a mm> dp from Stevei 
Johnson from Polagate, East 
Sussex lor Winter Games In the 
Biathlon sect ton , when you want 
to go u phi 1 1, m stead of pounding 
away at the left and right key, 
simply keep pressing the right 
key and apparently you should 
zoom upwards very quickly 
indeed' 




10 REM steortrike loader 

2PREM kftwifte everything 

25 BORDER 'INK PAPER 

30 CLEAR 83998 

40 LET tot 

50 RESTORE 

80 FORI -84000 TO 84113 

70 READ a LET tot tot ♦ a * a 

* PEEK £1-84000) 

80 POKE La 

SO NEXT! 

100 IF t«rK 1978813 THEM 

PRINT ERROR IN DATA <!!" 

BEEP 1,0: STOP 

110 PRINT |1 ; AT 0. 4 ; "START 

STARSTRKE II TAPE" 

120 RANDOMIZE USR 64000 

1000 DATA 6, 5, 197, 221, 33 

1001 DATA 0,0, 17, IS, 39 

1002 DATA 62, 255. 55, 205. 88 

1003 DATA 5, 193. 18, 239, 33 

1004 DATA 76, 250, 229, 33, 83 

1006 DATA 5 229, 33, 79, 250 
1008 DATA 17,207, 91, 1, 34 

1007 DATA 0, 237, 175. 221, 33 

1008 DATA 0,84, 17, 207, 27 

1009 DATA 62. 298. 55, 206, 88 

1010 DATA 5, 243, 221. 33, 

1011 DATA 0,17. 34.0 62 

1012 DATA 255, 206, 189, 5, 221 

1013 DATA 33. 241, 91. 17, 78 

1014 DATA 0, 82. 265, 196, 189. 

1015 DATA 5, 216. 207. 26, 82 

1016 DATA 99. 50 63, 32. 62 

1017 DATA 195. 50. 255. 255, 33 
1018 DATA 291. 91. T 7. 161,238 

1019 DATA 1,10, 0,237, 178 

1020 DATA 195, 102,238, 175, 50 

1021 DATA 160, 131. 4S. 192,92 

1022 DATA 195, 200,175 
9999 STOP 



Phew 1 That |usi about wraps n 
up for this month, and all that's 
left to do is to remind ynu Thai 
£20 Of Software is on Offer to the 
TOP TIPSTER every month, and 
another £20 is available for map 
makers. Ultimata's Pentttu 
arrived in Ludlow just in t imc lor 
a full review thi* is*u«, and I 
hauen't; been allowed near the 
gam* yet — I'd be interested to 
receive any lips, hints. POKES 
and map*, thai you might like to 
send in to help me get S#i>r*< 
man through his latest quest 
Steve Turner, author ol Oussa 
h«s sent in some hints on 
playing Ihe game, which I'll 
start leaking out next month A 
few early hints are already arrl 
— I for Heavy on The Magtck 
hut nothing, 
so far, on Sprndttiy — I'm 
twisting Phil Churchyard's 
arm for a POKE or two (he wrote 
the name, after all 'J, but me»n- 
Wrhaa, how about a fewpiaytips 
from GEORGE driver* our 
there? 
Finally, a plea from Defy- 

'. Stephen Dean who 
'wants a pen friend with whom 
he can swap games and tips If 
anyone feels like correspond inn 
with hkn then drop him a line or 
a hint at 42. Mansion Crescent. 
Cross Gates, Leeds LS15BQZ 

Keep the tips flowing, to the 
usual address, but please mark 
them for my attention 
HANNAH SMITH, CRASH PLAy 
ING UPS. PO BOX 10, LUDLOW, 
SHROPSHIRE SYS tOB 



CRASH June 1986 73 



□ NICHE a 



DTECHONICHET 




Romantic Robot are now 
making an improved version of 
their MULTIFACE ONE — which 
we reviewed in the March issue 
of CRASH in its original form. 
Most of the promised additions 
have been implemented and The 
interface must n ow be o ne of the 
most versatile and user-friendly 
units on the market. 

MULTiFACE ONE features an 
incredibly versatile SAVE facility 
for tape, Microdrive, Wafadrive 
and disk drive, It copes directly 
with the BETA and OPUS 
DISCOVERY drives and now 
also handles the KEMPSTON 
disk interface. Transfers to other 
disk systems can be effected via 
tape. A Kempston compatible 
joystick interface still appears on 
the upgraded unit, as well as an 
8K RAM extension thai can be 
used as buffer area or as a RAM 
disk - or for machine code 
routines. 

The unsatisfactory video 
output, which was linked to the 
noisy video signal at the edge 
connector, has been aban- 
doned. In its place has come a 
toggle switch to make the 
MU1T1FACE ONE invisible. This 
means that MULTIFACE ONE 
need not be physically removed 
should it clash with another 
peripheral connected to the 
system. 

There are atso major changes 

in the software area- Pressing 

the all important button reveals 
six options. EXIT returns you to 
BASIC with the condition that 
the standard system variables 
ere still intact, RETURN 
continues the interrupted 
program. SAVE initiates the 
SAVE routine, TOOL accesses 
the new MULT1 TOOLKIT 
routines, COPY copies the 
screen to any printer or printer 
interface which can interprel the 
COPY command, and JUMP 
provides direct access to any 
utilities within the Spectrum 
ROM/RAM 

The JUMP address is located 
at 6192 and 8133 At address 
8194 is a flag determining 
whether the ROM 10 1 or the 
MULTIFACE RAM (1) is paged, 
(active). For direct access with- 

74 CRASH June 1986 



PHASE 2 OF FACE 1 

FRANCO FREY takes a close look at the New, Improved MULTIFACE ONE from 
Romantic Robot. It has everything you could need, except possibly for 
Biological Action! 



out going through the MULTI- 
FACE menu, the identification 
code for RUN (Decimal 82,S5 r 7Bi 
can be PQKEd into 8195-8197. 
after which pressing the button 
BREAKs the program and a dir- 
ect jump is made to the required 
start address, The JUMP com- 
mand is useful for jumping dir- 
ectly into a resident disassem- 
bler, assembler or monitor. 

One advantage of storing 
routines within the MULTIFACE 
RAM is that they remain unaffec- 
ted by the NEW command. On 
the other hand, to save the con- 
tents, the whol e RAM or pa rt of it 
must be copied to the Spectrum 
RAM and saved from there, A 
BASIC program is provided in 
the manual for block moves into 
and out of the MULTIFACE RAM. 
The TOOL selection presents a 
new list of options. HEX toggles 
the display of the current byte 
between hex and decimal. To 
view a different memory area, 
the new address is typed end 
entered. SPACE clears the 
address. REG displays the ZBO 
registers which are held at 
16358-16383. WINDOW opens a 
window in the middle of the 
screen to show 1 28 bytes point- 
ed to by a flashing cursor. The 
address may be changed by 
using the cursor keys, TEXT 
translates and displays the bytes 
within the window into ASCII 
characters. QUIT gets you back 
to the opening screen menu. 
With all these options TOOL 
provides adequate means to 
view any system memory either 
byte by byte or in scrollable 
blocks of 128 byte*. 

The facility to scrutinise the 
ZBO registers in the state they 
were during the BREAK is very 
handy indeed. This makes 
MULTIFACE ONE the perfect 
tool for investigating commerc- 
ial programs by interrupting 
them ma rtual I y at any g iven i irne 
either just to display the 
memory contents or to pass 
control automatically over to a 
disassembler. 

The SAVE option makes the 
MULTIFACE ONE indispensable 
for transferri ng commerci al pro- 
grams onto the user's own fast 
Storage system, be it Micro- 
drive, Wafadrive or any of the 
available Spectrum disk drive 
systems. Programs are saved 
with or without screen end 
require little space due to a 
compression routine. Only the 



relevant memory areas are 
transferred and so several pro- 
q r a ms ca n be saved on one d isk. 
MULTIFACE ONE need not be 
present when loading the saved 
programs. The only disadvant- 
age is the corruption of the top 
screen area, which gals restored 
as soon as the program is left to 
run. At £39.95 plus CI. 00 post 
and packing, this interface it I 
must for any budding program- 
mer or for any serious games 
player with a fast storage device. 

GETTING YOUR 
HEAD TOGETHER 

Following on from OPERATION 
CARETAKER — a complete 
computer cassette recorder care 
kit containing a head cleaning 
tape and alignment routine. 
Global have just released 
OPERATION ALIGNMENT for 
the Spectrum at C5 .95. 

Without doubt, faulty align- 
ment of tape recorder heads is 
the major cause of tape loading 
problems — particularly if the 
program which is being loaded 
features one of the fancy hyper, 
mega or gigs loaders favoured 
by software houses in the drive 
against piracy Usually all that is 
needed is a tweak or two on the 
azimuth alignment screw that 
adjusts the playback head and 
all is well when the angle is 
restored to n inety degrees , 

Getting that correct angle can 



be a tricky business — the only 
really accurate way to do it in- 
volves an oscilloscope, but then 
not many folks have one of 
those lying around the front 
room at home With experience. 
It's possible to play a program 
tape and twiddle with the adjust 
injg screw, getting a reasonable 
alignment by listening to the 
sounds emanating from the tape 
recorder's speaker, but the 
nervous or unskilled can make a 
total botch of things using I his 
rather ham-fisted method- 
Global come to the rescue 
with a program (that you might 
have to load in with a friend's 
tape recorder if your head is 
really wonky) that comes in a 
box with a dinky little screw- 
driver ideal for head twiddling. 
Once the program has loaded. 
sample daia can be played into 
the computer and the tape head 
adjusted while you watch the 
effects of your Twiddles dis- 
played in the form of dynamic 
barcharts that give a readout of 
the status of the tape player in 
real time. 

Tech nobe bole aside , th a pack 
age represents good value if you 
are having problems with tape 
loading errors and is worth 
keeping with the computer. 
After at while, you may find that 
using the package has trained 
your ear and the software can be 
dispensed with — don't lose that 
dinky screwdriver though! 




IfECHBNICHEUTECHUNICHEHTECHBNIC 



INTEGRATING 
DIGIT WITH 
THE PLUS 



Fftt Limited, makers of the 
COMCON joystick interface, 
have come up with another 
interesting product — this time a 
kit to improve the feel and action 
of the Spectrum Plus keyboard , 
Arriving in a video sized box The 
kit contain? a myriad of little 
parts which have to be fitted to 
the Spectrum's internals. 

The back is already off one of 
the office Pluses, and a full 
report on DIGIT Fitting should 
foilow next issue. , . 



DIGIT 



tun fining thm DtOfTpmrlm to * Spectrum PJw ■ . 



SMOOTHING OUT THE SPIKES 



Dtmptug have come up with a 
unit that takes your electricity 
supply to the laundry. A tot of 
modem electrical equipment, 
including video recorder* and 
computers are susceptible to 
problems caused by voltage 
surges in the mains supply. 

Quite often, appliances in 
another part orf the building or 
street cut in and can cause very 
nasty things to happen to the 
data in a computer that shares 
the same local supply If you're 
tust about to reach an all -time 
high-score on the latest Mega- 
game and Sid rig** door decides 
to use his power drit), the result 
can be very annoying. More 
serious users, busify processing 



words or doing very hard sums 
with their computer, may sud- 
denly lose hours of work. 

DurBplug'S MAJNS FILTBR 
ADAPTOR is a straightforward 
solution to the dirty mains 
problem. It pops into a wall 
socket, and you plug your 
computer's powarlead into the 
I adaptor. A red LEO indicates 
whether the power is on at the 
wall end as long as you don't try 
to draw more than a total of 3 
amps through the unit, all 
should be ticketty boo from then 
on. Providing there are no Inter 
ruptions in the supply, that is . . . 

Around the CIS mark, avail- 
able from most electrical shops. 




Dumpings simplm and m t wgm n t volution la rho problmtni of 
Dirty Mama t that's not frangiais tor grubby fuwi. oithurl 

Tbmir MAMS FILTER ADAPTOR rmtmit* lot 1 18 



BLAST BACK 

After the liquidation of the 
company which brought BLAST 
(See previous NICHE s) onto the 
market, a new company has 
been formed which is to 

continue marketing the product. 
Systems Software (Oxford) Ltd 
have taken over rights to the 
compiler, but as we went to 
press it was not possible to 
ascertain whether owners of 
problematic early versions of 
BLAST will receive support from 
the new owners of the rights to 
the compiler. We'll keep you 
posted in future issues. 




TINKERING 
WITH TASWORD 

If you're an avid TASWORD user 
and have ever fancied produc- 
ing some slick output with your 
dot matrix printer, Severn Stars 
Publishing have got some good 
news for you. They are about to 
release OUALITAS, a utility that 
squeezes Near Letter Quality 
output from dot matrix printers. 
The TASWORD TWO version 
is ai ready ava i fable for £7 ,95 and 
a TASWORD THREE implement- 
ation is just around the comer, 
priced at £8.95 The sample print 
out sent with the letter announc- 
ing the imminent arrival of 
QUALrTAS were printed on '» 
battered old Epson FX80". end 
certainly looked quite impress- 
ive, A full review should follow 



□ □□□ 



SPECS AND DRUMS 

AND 
ROCK AND ROLL! 



Those of you who have been 
following Simon Goodwin's 
TECH TIPS column — or indeed 
getting in tune with Jon Bates, 
will have realised that the Spec- 
Drum from Cheetah is a pretty 
nifty piece of equipment 

Despite the fact that we miss- 
ed out a bijou listing last month, 
you'll have gathered that there 
are a lot of interesting things 
that can be done with this little 
black box and the software that 
accompanies it. 

Just for fun, the Chaps at 
Cheetah have agreed to give 
three SpecOrum units away in 
this competition which should 
test your drumming knowledge 
a bit and check that you have 
indeed been reading about 
SpecDrum in these hallowed 
pages. Runners up, who get all 
the answers right, will win a 
£3.00 off voucher, redeemable 
against a SpecDrum if you buy it 
by mail Order, direct from Chee- 
tah I Not bed eh? 

On with the thinking caps, and 
make sure your entry arrives by 
or before 26th June this year at 
DRUMMING COMP. CRA&H, PO 
Box 10, Ludlow, Shropshire, 
SYS 1DB Answers on the back 
of an envelope or postcard, 
please. 

1) One of these instruments is 
not part of the SpecDrum kit 
which one? 

a) Hi-Hat 

b) Cow-Bell 

c) Plectrum 



21 One of the following is not a 
drum machme is ft. 

a) Doctor Rhythm 

b) The Clog 
el Unndrum 

3} The SpecDrum has a Latin kit. 
Does thts mean: 

a I it has South American 
instruments 

b) it has swarthy looks and 
an Italian suit 

c} the names of the drums 
are in Latin 

4) Which drummer appeared 
three limes on test year's Live 
Aid concert: 

aiNigelOtsen 

b) Phil Collins 

c j Dave Donovan 

5| Uttravwt have a drummer as 
well as many drum machines 
What we want is the drummer's 
name is it: 

a) Karen Wann 

b) Connie Francis 

cj Warren Can n- 

G] Which drum is sometimes 
called a kick drum: 

a| Bass Drum 

bl Tom Tom 

c) Snare Drum 

7) fan Pairs is the drummer for: 
sJZZTop 

S Deep Purple 
Ozzy Osborne 



CRASH June 1986 75 



TECHaNICHEnNICHBJTECHONICHEn 




OF DATABASES, 
DISCO REMIXES 



AND 



Bl$ 



T SPOTTING 





MUSK TEACHER is available from John Child, 
South view Drive, Uckfield, Sussex, TN22 1TA 
PRICE; £10 for Parts One and Two together 

76 CRASH June 1986 



This month, Jon Bates takes a peek at a couple of 
music tutor programs from Childspla y and examines a 
combination Audio /Program cassette with hit tunes 
from the Commodore on one side and a database on 
the other. Next month he'll probably be back making 
music with add-on hardware , . . 



MUSIC TEACHER 
Parts 1 &2 

Childsplay Software 



In view of the wealth of music-making programs around, it's prob- 
ably not a bad idea to find out what those queer-looking blobs and 
sticks dancing along the lines in a music score actually mean if you 
want to get involved in tunesmithing with your Spectrum's assist- 
ance. As most music software involves a piano-type keyboard, you'll 
probably be tacking in the skills of note finding as well So a program 
such ss ttiis could well be a bonus in actually getting you to under 
stand what music scores are all about. 

Parts One and Two concern themselves with the actual names of 
notes and their relative positions on the lines and spaces. On loading 
up, the menu offers you option of playing games, getting an intro- 
duction to the world of lines and spaces and a tour of the theory 
behind it all. 



PART ONE 



Diving straight into the games there are various levels of difficulty. 
Note names are displayed on screen to help you and notes can be 
entered either by keys 1 to B [which correspond to the notes A to G) 
or by moving a cursor over a keyboard on the screen. One thing that 
was quite useful, educationally, was ihe section where the player 
has to match up the pitch of a note that has to be found with the pitch 
that you think it is. The realty keen could turn off the screen and play 
by ear? 

Each game is timed and the resulting score shown at the end. If 
you get a decent enough score you are allowed into the composing 
section- Here you enter your own tune and have the dubious 
privilege of hearing it back — although with all the notes being the 
same lenglh and played at a pretty pedestrian playback speed I 
found this a bit tiresome. Rests appeared hers without any previous 
explanation. It would have been nice to have been able to access the 
composing section direct from the menu. 

PART TWO 

Part Two introduces sharps and flats and revises Pan One. but 
doesn't have a composing option. All of a horrible sudden there are 
piles of key signatures without any lead up other than in the on- 
screen theory pages. Generally the idea is good and is one that has 
been covered no better by sim il ar prog rams 8u I 1 have a feel ing that 
it tends to defeat itself by having a theory section which consists of 
pages of text and the theory side does not actually take an active pan 
in die program, The games could be mora imaginative and make 
more use of colour and graphics. Although interactive music 
learning is obviously the way forward, it won't succeed if the 
program is little more than an electronic personification of a stuffy 
music teacher, 

Jon Bates 



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ntotw nmmina •painrr m limm limit in t h* hay of C Major, h'a 
Cammmn, photogrmphy pmr*on who't mmking mtt thm 
miitakws. not mutiemt mmtttm Jon B*fi> 

DATAHITS 
SOFTWHERE 



' 



Producer: Mupados 
Price; £4.99 

Available only through 

WH Smiths 



What's this?', I hear you acre- 
em, CRASH doing reviews for 
ZZAPI products^' Not quite. Let 
me explain. Databits is a cass- 
ette containing computer gene- 
rated theme music from five 
best-selling Commodore games 
in audio form on one side: a sort 
of 'Greatest Hits' compilation of 
Computer game soundtracks. 
The other side has a database 
program which runs on the 
Spectrum. The database enab- 
les you to file your cassettes and 
stack the titles of the programs 
complete with the tape-counter 
number in the database. The 
filing system doesn't have to be 
user? for computer games— the 
detsbse can be adapted for rec- 
ords end audio cassettes. The 
Sofrwherg system, although 
fairly simplistic is quite adeq- 
uate if, like me, you can loose 
track of programs and musk- 
cassettes within minutes [Qon't 
suppose tt'd make etty differ- 
ence to Mr Uddon's ittestyfe — 
S)J It has a fairly large capacity 
which, at full stretch, can contain 
20,000 titles! it's fust a 
the programmers didn't 
an option to print out Ihe 



over ?C 
shamei 
indudei 



contents of the database — such 
a facility would have made ihe 
software much more useful. 

The audio aide features Com- 
modore renditions of the music 
from ftemba, Neverendmg 
Story, Ghostbusters. Cr*ty 
Comets end Hypetspom. The 
Commodore la aided by several 
chunks of hardware (samplers, 
drum machines and sequenc- 
ers! and the result is not bad at 
all. The sound quality is very 
good (and so it should be for 
£4 991. If I was to be a bit critical I 
would say that some of the ar- 
rangements lack imagination 
and the resulting sounds can be 
a little wearing after a bit. I also 
failed to hear the 'stereo dance- 
mix' effect that ihe insert 
promised. 

Definitely A for effort, though. 
What we now await is a Spec- 
trum generated cassette, if any- 
one out there has been busy 
cranking their 1 Z8's and all owe* 
48K music add-ons into musical 
life please, send me i copy— I'd 
be very interested to hear from 
Spectrum composers. (Usual 
address: Jon Bates, PO BOX 10, 
LUDLOW, Shropshire SYfJ 1DB I 
This could open up a whole new 
be II -game in the record market I 
wonder how long before we see 
music that originated as a game 
soundtrack reworked for the 
charts? 

Jon Bates 



Nominated for the "Worst Vegetable Movie of all Time 11 




in. i 

mi I 

mill 
linn,, 
■; unit-- 



' * 



f*& 



Squash 'em or be squashed ^** T f N 



Based on one of those all- 
time lows m the world of movie 
making that were actually 
nominated for a Golden Turkey 
Award, the Attack of the Killer 
Tomatoes squelches on to your 
screens courtesy oi Global 
Software 

- « It's a bit of a sauce, really. 
There's Wimp Plasbott, working 
away in the PuraTom (ton) 
processing plant, when 
suddenly, several hundred killer 
tomatoes turn on you. 

- ■' Rotten, aren't they 1 



^A All you have to do is to help 
Wimp keep the Pizza Parlours 
well supplied with puree while 
attempting to hammer the reds 
before they can do the same to 
you 



Sounds absolutely killing, 
doesn't it? 

■ ! v But can you stand the sight 
of rivers running red? And have 
you got the bottle for it 7 

f\ If you haven't, hard squisht 



Available for: Spectrum 48K, all 
Amstrad CPC machines and all 
MSX 64K machines 

Available through ail 
good dealers 



Send cheques & P.O.'s to: 



m&£ 



PO Box 67 London SWi > IBS 
TtH 01 2281360 



S VVORL 



SAGA SYSTEMS' HARDWARE 

It yov want the best for your Spectrum, ensuring rf advances wtfh tec^nofogy, 
the Saga Systems' collection $t keyboards and peripherals «s essenitai And tney 
are af compatible with the 4BK, + and i2ffl Specttum 

SAGA f EMPEROR 




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THE NEW SAGA 2 + 

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THE HEW SAGA 2001 

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LAST 



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^fi: 04862-22977 



QTECHnNICHEUTECHBNICHEnTECHni 




a □ 




Simon Goodwin 
brings up more 
Excuses and 

Exclusives on the 
Spectrum 128 and 
Cheetah SpecDrum 
— plus all you 

ever wanted to 
know about Interrupt Mode 2! 



Well? What can I say? Pan of last 
month's TECH TIPS vanished 
into a wormhole in space (some 
where between Editorial and the 
Art Room, actually) and our 
whizzo scoop on SpecDrum 
wounds ended up bereft of a 
listing and a (able 
At least, I hope it was a 

iwDiTn no wb _ 

Besides catching up on the 
missing bits of lest month's 
column, this month I've got 
more dirt on the Cheetah Spec - 
Orum. I explain how to vary the 
volume of drums and produce a 
Fanlight-style graph of every 
sound. There's enough informa- 
tion (Art permitting I) for you to 
make up your own drums, or 
add effects to the sounds 
Cheetah supply, The results turn 
your QO drum box into a gadget 
that can outperform semi-pro 
devices in the flOO-C200 price 
bracket. 

Having saved at least ft 40, 
can rush out and buy a 
rum 12S. At long last the 
H machine has arrived at 
chez Goodwin; in this 
got information on RAM 
[including an exclusive in 
which lets you access all 128K 
from BASIC) and an in-depth 
analysis Of the real difference 
between the new machine and 
its predecessor . I've only had the 
Spectrum 128 for a few days, so 
I'm still finding out about its 
inner workings, Next month I 
should have a copy of the Spec 
trum 128 Technical Guide, so I'll 
really be able to blind you with 
science, 



KEY 
INFORMATION 

If you want the antra editing 
functions of the keypad, but 
don't want to pay the £20 that 
Sinclair Research were asking. I 





can tell you how lo get the same 
effect from the normal keyboard 
. . , the add-on keypad gives you 
new editing functions on single 
keys. The Spectrum T28 has to 
recognise these somehow; it 
uses the key -codes which follow 
the normal Spectrum user-defi- 
ned graphics. On a 48K machine 
you can type letters from A to U 
in GRAPHICS MODE, to get the 
corresponding 21 user-defined 
characters. Letters from V to Z 
are ignored. 

But the 126 treats those 
'spam' codes as editing com 
mands. In each case, in the ab- 
sence of a keypad, you have to 
press the GRAPH key — near the 
top left comer of the keyboard — 
before and after the appropriate 
letter The first press selects 
GRAPHICS MODE, so that the 
keys have their special effects, 
and the second press switches 
the mode off. so that you can 
type normally thereafter, Ann- 
oyingry, unlike the 48K machine, 
the 1?8 doesn't change the cur- 
sor when GRAPHICS MOM is 

GRAPH V GRAPH instantly 
moves the cursor to the start of 
the last line of your program. 
GRAPH W GRAPH lakes you to 
the vary beginning. GRAPH X 
GRAPH propels you to the end of 
the line - very useful that one — 
<jnd GRAPH V GRAPH moves the 
cursor to the start. The last 
'secret' key-code. GRAPH Z 
GRAPH, toggles the editor dis- 
play between the top and bot- 
tom parts of the screen, 



ROM WRONGS 

These functions only work when 
you're in 128 mode, but they 
have a lingering effect when you 
try to use 48K software When 

the new machine is put into 48K 
mode it 'hides' the extra 80K of 



memory and the 16K utility 
ROM, but K si ill doesn't behave 
exactly like a Spectrum or Spec- 
trum Plus. The mam incompat- 
ibility has the unfortunate effect 
Of stopping Kempston (and 
compatible) joysticks from 
working in many games. The 
explanation isa bit technical, bul 
here goes 

A 'heartbeat' signal generated 
inside the Spectrum causes it to 
stop what ever else it is doing 
and run a short machine-code 
program, 50 times a second, 
Normally this program just re- 
ads the keyboard and updates 
the computer's internal clock. 
The routine is buried inside the 
Spectrum ROM, so you can't 
Change it. 

However, it is possible to di- 
vert the effect so that another 
routine gets called every V50 
second. Many popular games 
use this effect to read the joy- 
stick or keys, move sprites or 
generate sound effects The 
diversion involves setting a 
software 'switch' inside the 280 
processor, so that it jumps to a 
routine indicated by the pro- 
grammer instead of the normal 
ROM routine. 

Unfortunately this mode — 
Interrupt Mode 1 — gives exte- 
rnal devices control over which 
routine gets executed. Devices 
can alter the diversion by pre- 
senting different values on the 
computer bus — the connector 
at the back. 

Games programmers don't 
want this— they want the same 
routine to run regardless of the 
value on the bus. But the Kemp- 
ston joystick interface upsets 
things by presenting values 
when it shouldn't, diverting me 
machine-code in the process. 

This, in case you are wonder- 
ing, is why Tornado Low Level 
used to crash if you tried to play 
it with a Kempston stick conn- 
ected — the interface made the 
processor look in the wrong 
place at every heartbeat. 

Values on the bus can range 
from Q to 255, so the processor 
can fetch the routine's address 
from up to 256 different plj 
In 1963 Quicksilva's John 
realised that a table of 257 
identical bytes will always send 
the processor to the same ad- 
dress* (257 identical bytes, 
because en address takes 2 
bytes) Such a table is a bit 
wasteful (for some reason, John 
actually used about 700 bytes 1 1 
and the possible destinations 
are a bit limited, but you can be 
sure of a reliable call 50 limes a 
second, whatever is plugged 
into the back of the computer. In 
Aquaplane this effect is used to 
give a two-colour border (sky 
and seal by changing the colour 
as the TV re-draws the picture, 
50 times a second. 

This technique worked, bul it 
used quite a lot of memory Ian 
Oliver of Realtime Software had 
the fiendish idea of using the 
'empty' locations in the old 
Spectrum ROM instead of a 
table in RAM. These happen to 
contain the right value (2551 to 



direct the computer to the vary 
top of memory. A relative jump 
instruction at address 65535 
interacts with the 1 3 value at the 
start of the ROM (logically, the 
'next' address) to send the pro 
cesser to address 65524, where 
you can put a jump to anywhere 
you like. The whole trick uses 
just 12 bytes of RAM. and it is 
totally impervious to the effects 
of the Kempston interface. It's 
very efficient, very clever, and 
programmers love it. Dozens of 
top games use the technique. 

But . . . Sinclair have put 
routines to read the keypad into 
the previously -unused area of 
ROM in the 128! the blank' area 
is now full of code, so the trick 
won't work. The problem can be 
cured if software houses go back 
to the old John Hoi I is method, 
but that needs much mora sp- 
ace, in rather inconvenient 
places Many games already use 
every byte on the48K machine . 

It's hard to see what can be 
done to gel around this prob- 
lem, in the short term. Amstrad 
only show their ignorance by 
complaining thai Spectrum pro- 
grammers should "follow the 
rules". Sinclair never published 
any rules about what should and 
shouldn't be done on the Spec- 
trum. If programmers had stuck 
to the information in the Orange 
manual we'd still be playing 3D 
Tsnx and Mtnett Out . . . 



128K FROM BASIC 

The ZflO processor in a II versions 
of the Spectrum can only add' 
ress 64K of memory at a time. 
16K is used for ROM and 48K for 
RAM. Older peripherals — such 
as Interface 1, ZX LPRINT, the 
VTX modem and so on — used a 
technique called paging to dis- 
able the ZX BASIC ROM and 
replace it, temporarily, with 
another. 

A similar technique is used on 
the 1 28, to allow 128K of RAM to 
fit into the 48X space. Of course, 
you can still only have 48K at a 
time. As supplied, the Spectrum 
128 uses 16K as workspace 
when programs am being edit- 
ed, and the remaining spare 64K 
as a RAM disc — an area of 
memory into which you can 
SAVE programs or data. Unless 
you want to mess around with 
riles, your program is stuck 
within the confines of the usual 
48K. 



CRASH 
EXCLUSIVE 

But that's just what Si ndei r said . 
Contrary to what you may have 
read in other magazines, it is 
easy lo switch the 1 28K around 
from BASIC, All you need is one 
POKE instruct ton r Before I spill 
the beans, I'd better explain how 
the 128K is arranged. 

The memory in the new 
machine is treated as eight 16K 
pages, numbered from to 7 in 

CRASH June 1986 79 



- 

\\TECHBNICHEnTECHnNICHEDTECHDNlh 



classic computer programmer 
tradition. Page 5 contains the 
normal screen memory and 
what would be present on a 16K 
Spectrum — addresses from 
16384 to 3276? Page 2 contains 
the next 16K. from 32768 to 
49151. Then things gat 
interesting. 

All the other six pages — 
0,1 3 ,4,6 and 7 — fit into the 
space from 49152 to 66535 Of 
course, only one page can he 
accessed at a time. You select 
the page by storing the number 
of the page you want, plus 16, at 
address 23388. 

Before you go swapping 
pages you should type CLEAR 
49151. so that ZX BASIC doesn't 
try to store information in the 
top' 1EK — otherwise it wilt gat 
very confused when the inform- 
ation vanishes end a new page 
appears' 

I'm still waiting for the tech- 
nical details of the 123, so I'm 
not sure WHY this POKE works 
— but it does, Normally page 
occupies the lop 16K. As soon as 
your BASIC program stops, 
page re-appears and some- 
thing POKEs 16 back to 23388 — 
but you can PEEK or POKE. LDlR 
or whatever in the 'new' pages 
while your BASIC prog ram runs. 

For example, write a program 
that starts with POKE 23388, 17 
Ipage 1) and then examines the 
contents of memory from 49152 
onwards. You will see the con- 
tents of the first quarter of the 
RAM disk. The next three quart- 
ers are in pages 3. 4 and 6: they 
can be accessed by POKEing 19. 
20 and 22 (1 6 plus 6) respective- 
ly. You can look at the editor's 
workspace, and the RAM disk 
directory, by selecting page 7 
with POKE 23388,23 

Most amazingly, you can even 
end up with the same page of 
RAM in two places I Try thisline : 



1 CLEAR 49151 : POKE 233682V 
POKE 491 52.255 PAUSE 



This moves page 5 into the top 
16K, and then POKEs 255 af the 
start of the page. However, 
video information from 16384 
upwards is still being reed from 
page 5 The POKE to 49152 puis 
a line cm the screen — even 
though the screen is al 16384, 
The same memory is appearing 
in two places I 

You can do the same with 
page 2 — normally 32768 to 
49151 — but you should be wary 
of POKEing it as you might 
Corrupt your BASIC program. 

It's a fiddle to gain access to all 
128K, bui it can be done Unfor- 
tunately you can't divert RAM 
into the bottom page — where 
the ROM normally appears — 
and switch the video memory 
out of the normal 64K comp- 
letely So you can' t run the CP/M 
business operating system on 
the Spectrum as you can on the 
'other' Amstrad machines. Still, 
who cares? 

80 CRASH June 1986 



HARD FAULTS 

The edge-connector at the back 
of the 126 is missing a few sig- 
nals, compared with the Spec- 
trum. It is no surprise thai the old 
display signals jU, V, Y and 
VIDEO) are unconnected, as the 
new machine has an RGB and 
Composite video output socket. 
More importantly, the IOR 
QGE signal has gone, This used 
to allow external devices to 'turn 
off the Spectrum ULA so that 
they could imitate the keyboard, 
The original version of the Com- 
con joystick interface, among 
others, used IORQGE. and wou- 
ldn't work on the 1 28. A new 1 28- 
compatible version is now 
available, 

128K INSTANT 
INTERFACE 



The other joystick interfaces I 
got working were an ancient 
Sionechip programmable port, 
an interface 2 (after pressing 
RESET} and — of course! — the 
Instant Interface, documented in 
the December 1365 TECH TIPS. 

You'll need a copy of the 
original article to fit the port, but 
here are some new points to 
remember. There are eight 
screws on the underside of the 
machine — three long ones, by 
the metal heat -sink, a sharp 
edged one by the edge conn- 
ector, three on the right hand 
side and one on the bottom lip. 
As ever, remember that you 
invalidate your warranty by pul- 
ling your machine apart. 

The six wires from the joystick 
go onto the backs of the key- 
board connectors; these have 
been moved, but are otherwise 
identical to the ones on the 48K 
machine, The new circuit board 
is heid in by two very short 
screws nea r 1 h e f rent edge o 1 1 he 
machine, Leave the three screws 
by the heat sink alone. 

You must unplug the regu- 
lator, on the right, by pulling 
gently on its white connector. 
Prise the reset switch vertically 
out of its slot, and then turn the 
board upside down for solder- 
ing. When you put things back 
together, note that the regulator 
wires should be coloured Green. 
White. Red from left to right as 
you view the machine with the 
edge-connector pointing away 
from you. Don't try to test the 
machine until you ve re-conn- 
ected the regulator! 

MORE TESTING 

t tried a few other peri pherals on 
the 128. There seems to be a 
general problem with devices 
mat use input ports — the Oatel 
sound sampler was able to pro 
duce noises (via port 127] but I 
couldn't read anything back 
from the same port. Perhaps the 
'strobe' port — number 191 — 
was not working properly. 
Amazingly, my Curreh Micro- 



speech worked first time, auto- 
matically selecting 48K mode 
and chattering away quite hap- 
pily on the new machine. Micro- 
speech is ava i la b I e at a s i 1 1 y price 
nowadays, and i1 is good to see 
thai it works on the new mach- 
ine. The BETA Disk syslem is 
definitely NOT compatible with 
the 128, and I hear lhat the VTX 
5000 modem won't work either, 

I found that a ZX LPRINT 2 
parallel printer interface worked 
fine on the 128 in 48K mode. In 
128 mode you MUST use a 
printer connected to the serial 
port — theZX Printer won't work 
in thai mode, not least because 
some of the new System Vari- 
ables are Stored in the ZX printer 
buffer I 

If you've got a Centronics 
printer you may be interested to 
hear that serial to parallel con- 
venors for the QL work perfectly 



on the 128. The plugs (for once) 
are the same. I tested this with a 
Connexions QL interface, bou- 
ght at Boots, and rt worked 
straight away. COPY generates 
codes for a EPSON FX lor com- 
patible) printer, The Miracle 
Systems QL interface should 
also work. 

The Cheetah SpecDrum see- 
med to suffer from software, 
rather than hardware, incompat- 
ibility. I could push the cones of 
my speakers back and forth by 
sending different values to port 
31 from 128 BASIC, but the drum 
software wouldn't work in 1 28 or 
48 mode. This is a shame, be- 
cause the SpecOrum could do a 
lot with extra RAM — you could 
have about 40 different drums 
loaded at once, using the page- 
Nipping technique explained 
earlier. 



SPECDRUM REVISITED 



Back to humble 48K Spectrum 
users now, with further hints 
about Cheetah's SpecOrum. The 
SAMPLE EDITOR pmgram, 
which went missing last month, 
lets you load any drum sound 
into memory. You'll need to use 
the Cheetah Kit Editor to extract 
individual drums from a kit. but 
you can load ihe RIM and HI 
TOM sounds directly. 

The extra lines from 600 to 620 
print out the name and type of a 
sample, once you've loaded it 
Of course, you can change any 
of this information with POKEs 



DRUM TUNING 



Once you've got a sample m 
memory you can tailor the 
sound, in just about any way- 
Each sample is made up of 
2 3,000-odd numbers, repres- 
enting back and forth move- 
ments of a wave (or speaker 
cone). The com outer plays 1 hese 
back at high speed, and elec- 
tronics in the SpecOrum convert 
the numbers into a changing 
voltage 20,480 numbers are 
processed by the hardware 
every second, which explains 
the high quality — the band- 
width or tonal range of the 
system is about the same as a 
good cassette recorder or a 
Medium Wave radio station. 

The SpecOrum is an eight-bit 
system, which means that it can 
cope with 256 different levels. 
There's only one hardware 
channel, but the effect of three 
sounds at once can be produced 
by adding together the level for 
each sound. 

To make the adding easier, 
each byte is stored as a signed 
value, between -128 and 127. 
The Spectrum's PEEK command 
treats negative values as if they 
had 256 added to them, so a little 
code is needed to correct things. 
POKE copes perfect ly happily 
with signed values. 



ACOUSTIC 
SIGNATURES 



Line 700 scans through an entire 
sample. The sample should be 
loaded with the other program, 
to set the value of the variable T 
{the sample type). Line 710 con- 
verts each PEEK into a signed 
value. 

The first line 720 just plots the 
graph of the sound across the 
Spectrum display. If you want to 
see this work welt, try plotting 
the KICK D from the Latin kit The 
scale is compressed, to fit the 
entire sound on the screen; you 
may find it is better to look at 
only part of a high pitched 
sample, by removing the INT, 
brackets and /12 m line 720- The 
plot will slop with an error- 
message when the edge of the 
screen is reached. 



EMPHASIS 



Unlike the SpecOrurn, most real 
drummers bash away at varying 
levels as they play. The Spec 
Drum only plays each drum at 
one volume, and this is very 
limiting musically. Upmarket 
drum synths have an emphasis 
button which can be used to 
make certain beats extra- loud, 

You can adjust the levels of 
the SpecDrum samples by 
multiplying or dividing the 
stored values. Large factors lead 
to distortion, but a factor of 2 is 
barely discernible to the ear, so I 
find I get beat results by cont- 
rasting doubled and halved 
samples- Simple rhythms play- 
ed on one drum, alternatively 
using two levels, sound great. 

To change the level of a sem 
pie, use line 700 and 710 to read 
each value and add the second 
line 720. Set FACTOR to 2 or 0.5 
before you GOT TO 700, and the 
sample will be turned up or 






llOtEnTECHONICHEDTECHONICHEDTEC 



SAMPLE EDITOR LISTING* 

100 CLEAR 26767 

110 FOR I-2676B TO 26764 

120 READ Bl POKE I,Ci NEXT I 

Ijo print "Play dru» tap*. " 

140 POKE 2A7BO,BAi POKE 26781,5 

150 BO TO 3O0 

200 PRINT "Tap a k*y to fiVi. "! PAUSE 

220 POKE 267BO, 194t POKE 26781,4 

300 POKE 26771 t 16Si POKE 26774,8 

310 POKE 26773,0 J POKE 26777, O 

320 RANDOM J2E USR 26768 

330 LET T-PEEK 267B9 

400 POKE 26771, 175* POKE 26774,0 

410 PDKE 26775, B+4«<T-130 OR T-132) 

420 POKE 26777,235 

430 RANDOMIZE USR 26 768 t STOP 

500 DATA 175,221,33,0,104,17,0,0 

310 DATA 62,0,53,205,0,0,245,193,201 



down respectively. You can 
check thin by re-printing the 
graph. I POKE a 'plus' or 'minus' 
character into the names of 



samples which have been proc- 
essed in this way, lo remind me 
what t've done when I come to 
re- load the sound. 



EXTRA ROUTINES 1 

Display drum details! 

6O0 PRINT "Drew type* "(PEEK 26789|", Nue " t 
610 FOR 1-26790 TO 26796* PRINT CHR* PEEK I; 
620 NEXT ti PRlNTi STOP 

Graph samp lei 

70O FOR 1-26799 TO 28846+ J 024 * ( T- 1 30 OR T-132) 
7lO LET L-PEEK It IP L>127 THEN LET L-L-256 
720 PLOT INT t C 1-26799) /1Z) , 88+Li NEXT I 

Adjust eophasis (suggested FACTORS 0.3, 2) I 

720 POKE I.LIFACTORi NEXT I 



CUPPING 



It is important lhat the total level 
of all the drums being played 
never exceeds 127 or drops 
below -1?, or the sound will be 




type h ice d 



A /v> 



fn € n 



50 2 



Thm wmvmform drmwn an icf**n by (J>* output thai normally 
sounds likm tha Kick Drum in th* 5PEC0RUA* Kit Nntm the 
STOP ftammmtlt duf conclude* the artulry , . . 



TABLE li SpecDrum channels, drum positions & sample sizes. 



Position 12 3 

Sample 2K 3K 3K 

Channel 1 2 2 

File type 129 130 130 



4 
3K 
2 
130 



5 
2K 
3 
131 



6 
2K 

3 
131 



7 
3K 
3 
132 



8 

3K 
3 
132 



badly distorted. This can never 
happen when you use the stan- 
dard drums, because they are 
recorded so that the total of all 
the loudest drum levels is within 
a safe range (the Bass d rum gets 
the most range, and the other 
two channels share the rest). 

If you adjust the volume of 
drums you Obviously run the 
risk that you'll exceed the proper 
range. Its up lo you to avoid 
combinations that do this — if s 
very easy to tell when clipping 
takes place, because the sound 
tsawfuM 

Once you've got a sample in 
memory you can play about 
with it to your heart's content. 
You can add the first pan onto 
the second, giving an echo res- 
ult, Or POKE a made-up wave- 
form into memory. You can get a 
good ides of the shape of 
sounds by plotting the graph of 
the Cheetah drums. 



THE END 



Well, this month's column hat 
been very technical but I hope 
you've found H interesting nen- 
•fhewsaa. The Spectrum may be 
four years old but it's certainly 
far from prayed out nan ent- 
husiasts' machine. Next month 
I'll take a look at the Genius 
assembler from Oa si S /Ocean, 
which promise* to beat all other 
Spectrum machine code SySt- 
ems hands down {really!) I'll 

also explain more about the in- 
ner workings of the 129. includ 
trig — hopefully — a fix for some 
of the problems mentioned this 



Your letters., on any Spectrum 
-technical subject. Are welcome. 
A parcel of letters was lost, early 
in April, between CRASH and 
my Black Country hideout, so I 
mutt apologise on behalf of th* 
Post Office and ask anyone who 
wrote In than to try again — as 
far as I know I'm up to data with 
alt the readers letters that have 
reached me, and we'll used 
Registered post from now on 
The address, as ever, is: 
TECH TIPS 
CRASH 
POBQXlu 
Ludlow 
Shropshire 
SYo-lDB 



CRASH June 1986 81 



c 



WINNERS 



SABOTEUR MAPPING COMPETITION 






Way back during the snows and 
general arctic conditions of Feb- 
ruary, we asked all Saboteur 
fans to come up with a map of 
the game, Dunafl kindly supplied 
a video by way of an incentive ■ ■ , 

There must have been an 
awful lot of you snowed m over 
the fist months of this year, 
because we were snowed- under 
(Copyright 1 986 /Vj?ny Coo! Link 
Corpo/at/on) with entries. Due 
to a slight error in the February 
typesetting, the entry deadline 
was extended a little. Now, at 
long last, the competition has 
doatd, the winning entry has 
been selected. Kevin Payne of 
Holmoak BS18 2R2 will soon be 
watching all the latest videos on 
the machine supplied by (hi 
helpful fellows atDurell. 



Runners-up get to choose a 
game from the Durell catalogue, 
and should have a good few 
hours of free playing ahead of 

them 

The ten runners up who get 
their choice of Durell games are 
as follows: 

Angus Mackintosh, Datmouth 
Terrace. SE10BAX; Paul 
Haywood, Hampton Grove, BL9 
6PT ; AM Pugh, Birmingham St, 
WV1 3 2HH; Rusell R Semaine, 
Bush Hall Rd. CM12 OPZ; Nick 
Annies, Sallowbush Rd, PE1S 
7AF ; Simon Lynch, Hermits 
Croft, CV35HA; Paul Messam. 
Belle Vue Rd. SNl 3HN; David 
Barrett. Mill Hill Lane, DEIS 
QAX; Paul Deyes. London Rd, 
HP3 98D: Robert Brown, 
Queens Close, NR4 7PE 




Captmin Kidtidmmonttrmtm* *ta wnufng bottomtmim tmckmi 
trick wvhilm drawing thm winning «it«i in DtgHtl 
kifgrmtton* TOMAHAWK oompmtnion 



82 CRASH June 1986 




BOMBJACKCOMP 



In the April Issue of CRASH we 
asked all the BombJack fans 
scattered around the country to 
devise a training manual for use 
by an assistant superhero while 
Bomb jack went on his hols. A 
BombJack arcade machine is 
the prize in this case, and after 
after hours of head -set ratching 
the faithful Comps Minion 
finally dragged himself out of 
the broom cupboard for long 
enough to select the winners: 
The Brothers Westtand — 
Stephen and David — will soon 
have a BombJack arcade 
machine winging its way down 
to them in Wesi Wickham, Kent, 
Bite T-shirts go to the 20 
runners-up. 



The runners up, whose grasp of 
Bombjack is quite evident, will 
soon be able to parade about in 
their very own ELITE SYSTEMS 
T Shirts, Not bad, eh? 

fUEnwyOuhmtonfld HJMH, 

9HQ. JMtMcmfc.B4Wfefnirtfe4.CMl 
4YG . IwMh. Station toun K Y» 4fifl . 
JtftfnrFmthifidrttoLm, BfBBSSN, 
Jortfl HodhHWHi, Knuhflwi Orient. B-?4aQP; 
UiKwHl, Gw***n M. ET tAF, Nktotat 
Ffafcfar. fiiwlw Mf IT Mf . John 
dmwjwty- "•fcpflwdHu, LS«7 QWT, J#ff 
5m*h, m» T*pn*r». SOS SAfl. rhoniii 
, Mnpgnnftnp W.WIM; 



Andrw. KaUH. SMph* Una. T03 7DA, A 
WNMhm it, DcwUhorp*. HU4 ft*U; RomU 
MgniHfv. Co in tem Rd, EH 14 SOf; •#■» 
SmaM,HprmmtftfU,iMJ€n.*martm 
Hoopar CoWHD, BA10HM; Paul ttnwtt. 

Onon Lay*. CVB2 SWF; Lr*a Botmi. 
Mingiftd.POar" 

p PH7 eV^Fi J 



Wwnirmg Ad. POJ TtOC. Stawn Monk*. 
BrMtaSCr - 



T r T7 TOM AH A WK KIDS 






The Tomahawk competition 
wasn't actually featured in 
CRASH but was run on the inlay 
card of Digital Integrations 
helicopter simulator. Graeme 
Kidd (He of the shiny red Doc 
Martens) drew the winning 
entries from an official CRASH 
bucket just the other day, and 
here they are. The first prize of a 
trip in a helicopter plus a day out 
with Digital Integration goes to 
David Griffiths of Raby Rd, 
Durham and Martin Johnson 
who hails from Foundry in 
Truro, 

Twenty runners-up era to 
receive Apache Aims model 
kits The helicopter ride is 
scheduled for a warm spell — so 
sit tight winning entrants, you'll 
be airborne before you know it I 
Airfut Kit Modellers to be are: 
John Lewis, Hendrefoilan Road, 



Swansea; C J Biddle , Highcroft 
Avenue, LE25UG; R Nash, 
Watford Road, Herts; Nick 
Hawcroft. One I Bank. Yd I 2SZ; 
lain Morrison, Manse Road, 
Nairn; David Certwright, 
Bowahew, S1B6GB; J R Thorpe, 
Felindre, Wales; M H Watmore, 
Toa puddle Way, GUI 7 7BH; 
Jason Lock, Heathbourne Road. 
Lanes: Mr P Lawler, Springfield 
Close. P020 7 AS; A B Smith, 
Hoist Close, NR33 9BZ; P Small, 
Norman by Road- LN7 GTB; R 
Baliszewski. Leighton Buuard, 
Beds; M Perman, Carson s Drive, 
Suffolk; Colin Need, Peddlers 
Grove, Suney; Mark Whi laker, 
Westfield Drive. OL3 9BB. Mr G 
Proctor Gam rave Court, LSS 
7EP; Phil Ceilings. Devon. TO 12 
SHF; S L Morrison , Learn Lane, 
Tyne & Wear; Richard Pettican. 
Spindlewoods, Surrey 



~S 







ADVENTURE CHART WRITE-IN COUPON 



Please use block capitals and write deafly! 



My lop rive programs are: 



TITLE 



VOTE OUT OF TEN 



i » ■ ■ * i * # # * * * * * ■ * « ■■ •"■L** * * + * 4 * + » • ' 



«.....-. 



Address ,, 



postcode 



Ts*«r«zf 



Send your coupon to: CRASH ADVEMTURE TRAIL, PQ BOX 10, 
LUDLOW. SHROPSHIRE SY8 IDS 



J 



CRASH HOTLINE WRITE IN COUPON My lop five favourite programs in descending order 
Please use block capitals and write dearly! are: 



f 

I 

i 
i 

I 
i 

I 2 

■" - 

1 Postcode £_ 

I T SHIRT SEE ^_ 



Name . . . TITLE 

Add ress ,,,.,,.,... 



PRODUCER 



l 



I Send your coupon to: CRASH HOTLINE, PO BOX 10, t 
I LUDLOW, SHROPSHIRE SY8 1DB _ 



CRASH June 1986 S3 










'•« I'.<IM 




H«l | 




MM • > 



This month sees the start of a new 
column, put together by BRENDON 
KAVANAGH who has been involved in 
the Play By Mail gamesworld for some 
while. Brendon produces his own 
fanzine — THE TELEPATH — for play- 
ers of the Play By Mail Game STAR- 
GLOBE, as well as contributing a 
regular column on STARGLOBE to 
PBM MAGAZINE. Take it away, Bren- 
don . . . 



The hobby of Play By MaiHPBMI 
gaming is now well established 
in the OK. and ■ lot has 
happened since Chris Harvey 
brought the PBMtng bug across 
the Atlantic from America 
fifteen years ago. John 
Minson'i report on the first 
British PBM Convent ion in the 
April issue set the scene: over 
the coming months Til be 
providing a regular update on 
the goings on in the PBM world. 
■swell as looking at some of the 
games currently available. 
To begin with, I'd like to 
explain the main elements of 




PBM gaming, and outline the 
bask structure of the games 
themselves 



PLAYING GAMES BY MAIL? 



A PBM game is a complex 
fantasy/strategy game played 
simultaneously by a large group 
of people who all use the postal 
system to interact with the 
game. To participate, each play- 
er sends orders for the current 
turn to the Game Moderator 
(GM ) , who is paid to p rocess the 
orders and return the results to 
the players. Each player's res- 
ults are unique and personal- 
ised, and is is partly from study- 
ing these results thai a player 
decides on the orders to pop in 
the post for the next turn 

Games may be human mode- 
rated, computer moderated or 
computer assisted The way in 
which a game is moderated 
affects its feel but shouldn't 
affect the quality of the game 
itself. Players of the Fighting 
Fantasy type of game, for inst- 
ance, tend to feel that computer 
moderation gives the imagina- 
tion much more freedom, Con- 
versely, space-based games 
generally lose out on atmo- 
sphere if the turn reports are 
handwritten sheets rather than 
computer-generated printouts, 

Each moderating method has 
its inherent disadvantages. 
Human moderators — by their 
very nature — can have bad 
days, which are reflected in the 
standard of GMing. Computer 

84 CRASH June 1986 



software and hardware can 
suffer from disastrous bugs or 
system crashes that may wipe 
the entire game from memory- 
Backups are almost always 
taken regularly by GM's running 
a computer system, but the hard 
disk equipment needed rapidly 
gets expensive , . Generally, 
PBM games are run wall, and 
problems are scarce. 

TURN AND 
TURNAROUND 

P6M names either have fixed 
deadlines for orders or they are 
'open ended", Where deadlines 
are enforced, players must post 
their orders on or before a cer- 
tain date. The GM can then pro- 
cess all the orders at once, and 
the main overlying strategy in 
such games involves predicting 
the actions of enemies or op- 
ponents in order to outwit them. 
Deadlines are usually fortnight- 
ly, but other frequencies do crop 
up — weekly deadlines are set 
on some games to give fast 
turnaround, while three weekly 
or monthly deadlines in other 
games allow international play- 
ers to participate without being 
effected by postal delays 
Open ended games have ord- 




■saraya 

i w nf Othmt monttl by CMjM Y ml 1 7 LMnobmnk Annum, Ajh 
Pert, Notth*9hm*n WO 1 5 BmU. £ f .00 comprise, m*if *n*w 



era processed several limes a 
week, and have no fixed way of 
ending. Players may submit 
orders as often or as rarely as 
they choose, and such games 
usually progress rapidly Open 
ended games with a fast turn- 
around are likely to appeal to 
those who enjoy quick, realtime 
developments more than a stag- 
gered battle of wits. 

LEF1N 

Play By Mail games are charac- 
terised by the long lives they 
enjoy — games last for years, as 
a PBM game is no one-day cam- 
paign. A variety of methods are 
used to bring PBM games to a 
dose. Normally, a game contin- 
ues until there is a clear victor or 
the game becomes uneconomi- 
cal for the Game Moderator to 
run. Alternatively, points or 
ratings systems may be employ- 
ed in a variety of ways — some 
games end on a set date, when 
players are ranked according to 
achievements. One game invol- 
ve i a sacral eoorm eei by the GM 
at Ite start, and as soon as a 
player reaches that mystery 
score, then the game ends. In 
open ended games, a points 
system is used to identify the 
leading players. 

Ultimately, games can be 
closed due to acts of God 
{computer failure or other real- 
life disaster), low popularity or 
even total boredom on the part 
of the Game Moderator. Fortu- 
nately, early closures are rare. 

THE DIPLOMATIC 
CORPS 

The most attractive feature of 
PBM games is probably the fact 
that they aremultiplsver games 
The results that arrive on your 
Turn Sheet after each move can 



be heavily influenced by the 
actions of other players. Operat- 
ing alone in a game, with no 
allres to support you, can be very 
difficult as well as being a bit 
boring. It is very important la 
engage in diplomacy to get the 
most out of the game. 

Inter-player communication, 
which take place outside the 
structure of the game itself as 
laid down by the Game Moder- 
ator, is termed Diplomacy, and 
involves direct contact between 

Slayers by telephone or letter, 
unning Diplomats do well . . . 
The art of Diplomacy involves 
a complicated process of bluff, 
double bluff and negotiation. 
The aim is to extract information 
from fellow players, to make 
alliances or enemies, to double- 
cross allies, and to indirectly 
manipulate other players. Diplo- 
macy is also commonly used to 
plead for mercy from a superior 
force! Very complex relation- 
ships can develop between the 
players in a game, and the 
behind-the-scenes manoeuwer- 
ing can often become as much 
fun, if not more fun, than the 
actual game play I 

NEXTMUNF 

Following on from this brief in- 
troduction to the mechanics of 
PBM games, nexl month I'll take 
a close look at a single game — 
VOHCON WARS. This is perhaps 
the best introduction to PBM 
gaming around at the moment, 
and I'll examine the game in 
depth for the benefit of readers 
thinking about taking up the 
hobby of playing games by mail. 
Meanwhile, please don t hesi- 
tate to drop me a line at PBM 
MAILBOX. CRASH Towers, Lud- 
low, Shropshire SYS 1DB — I'd 
like to include game tips and 
letters in a PBM MAILBOX 
FORUM, and it's up to you to 

hnlpour 



■Lji l 





Deep in the secret urKierground lab beneath Kew Garters jeror^Wndburnf ic photographer) searches for the JmemtatjNddw^the 
M*J Pftrfeisof . Can he fird and ph^^ 

In case of dffiaJty Hocus I 




Liberty House, 222 Regent Street. London W I ft 7DB 



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HEAVY 
ON THE 
MAGICK 



Producer: Gargoyle 

Price: £9,95 

Authors: Carter & Follis 

Music on the Spectrum has 
never been a mattef to crow 
about, what with the likes of the 
Commodore, Amslrad and Atari 
machines tunefully serenading 
the high street store customer*, 
but here Gargoyle have pro- 
duced an intro tune which 
improves and becomes mora 
complete the longer you leave ii 
playing on the introduction, 
screens. The player is further 
seduced an animated loading 
screen — the first I can 
remember seeing. Many of the 
pictures you will meet during 
the game are flashed up around 
I he screen as a loading counter 
ticks down from over 750 in the 
bottom right- hand comer. 

The options on loading up are 
commendable and ere an in- 
sight into the complexities and 
depth of the game. Magic* f 
sees you start a brand new 
game. Save Game and Restore 
Game are The standard options, 
while Save/Restore Axit (tha 

CRASH June T 986 87 






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identity, The playablility is saved 
though by the use of the 
EXAMINE OBJECT command 
which not only tells you of the 
ruiture of the object but in what 
way it might prove useful or 
otherwise harmful. Objects can 
be harmful by being poisonous 
or by simply draining Stamina 
by wary of their excessive 
weight 

Wa I chi no the first frame tor a 
while familiarises you with the 







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main character) and Realign 
Status are welcome additions. 
This last allows the player to 
alter the values lor Stamina. 
Skin and Luck randomly attribu- 
ted to our hero at the start. 
Pressing the 6 key has the values 
swapping around from their 
inherent bias towards a high 
Stamina, much lower Skill, and 
very low Luck so that you might 
prefer and select a high Skill or a 
high Luck. Typical starting 
values tor Stamina, Skill and 




Luck are 33, 8, 3 and 35, 12, 4 
showing thai your total points 
[airy does vary along with their 

88 CRASH June 1986 



distribution. You always, 
however, begin with zero exp- 
erience points, and are saddled 
with the far from glamorous 
grade of Neophyte, a very lowly 
wizard barely competent with 
spells. 

The first frame gives an idea of 
how all the information m the 
superb supporting booklet (the 
best I've seen since Lords of 
Midnight in terms of playing 
details and imaginative story- 
line) might be enacted. Axil the 
Able stands between two tables 
with what look like, and indeed 
are, books perched upon each. I 
say 'look like' because herein 
lies one of the few drawbacks — 
and a minor one at that — to the 
payability of this game. The 
picture is formed by a method 
Gargoyle have made their own; 

the screen is formed in memory 

and blown up onto the screen as 
a way to conserve memory and 
SO allow a longer and more 
detailed adventure. Because of 
this, the scale of the picture is 
enlarged and the definition is 
reduced, with the result thai 
individual pixels become con- 
spicuous and objects become 
that much more difficult to 



windows Of information along 
the bottom of the screen. The 
debut location is a good place to 
do this, as in other localities 
various nasties suddenly 
descend upon you making your 
task, and your very survival, a 
difficult business. Your char- 
acter. Axil, stands between the 
tables in a long cloak which he 
ruffles impatiently, waiting on 
your next move. Wailing long 
enough here you will also notice 

this rustling of garment actually 

takes up Stamina as a click, 
marking the loss of one unit 
every Tew minutes, lets you 
know 

The first frame is quite useful 
for showing how one or two of 
the simpler aspects of the game 
work. The ever-useful EXAMINE 
OBJECT invoked, as with all 
commands, by a key word {in 
this case brought up onto the 
screen by pressing X} takes Axil 
behind the desk to the left and 
tells of a table pitted with wood- 
worm which holds a book PICK 
UP BOOK, enacted by pressing P 
and spelling out BOOK (all 
words following keywords must 
be spelled out in full — no easy 
matter with words like 



GRIMOJRE knocking around) 
has Axil on screen picking up the 
book with one of many superb 
and life-tike animations Alas, 
the book is smeared with poison 
and your Stamina ratine takes a 

Suick tumble. {Incidentally, PICK 
iPobjecl gives "You can't lift the 
table'fl 

The choice of exits at the start 
is between east and west but in 
later screens there can be many 
exits, a little arrow indicating 
whether any lead up or down, eg 
NE t would indicate that the NE 
exit lakes you up a level. 
Another symbol you will meet 
sooner or later is the Mashing of 
a direction marker, which indic- 
ates that a nasty is approaching 
from that compass point. Apart 
I from directions, the left hand 
window can also hold infor- 
mation on the level you happen 
to be in and the objects you are 
carrying {after picking up or put- 
ting down of an object). 

One point which I either didn't 
quite grasp, or which is a 
genuine failing, is the inability to 
speed up the game. Each frame 
begins with a description of the 
locality eg You are in ihe Sothic 
Complex on Level 2* which 
remains on the screen for nine 
seconds. This is a long time if 

rau want to zip around Perhaps 
just missed the description of 
the key which speeds up this 
process in the manual How- 
ever, if you know where you are 
going, you can bypass readouts 
By using the multiple entry sys- 
tem whereby words separated 
by commas and entered as a 
string are acted upon at once. 
Separated commands can be 
interrupted by an attacking 
monster. 

Heavy on the Magick is some- 
thing that has been promised to 
the computer games world for 
some lime but until now has 
never quite materialised, h is an 
adventure, certain ly, but is 
animated to the extent where it 
will appeal to a whole sped rum 
of games players. The incredibly 
lifelike movements of the main 
character, and the cuteness of 
the monsters, should find a very 
receptive audience just dying to 
get their hands on this one. 



COMMENTS 



Difficulty: very playable, not 
easy to complete 
Graphics: unusual blown up 
pictures featuring superb 
animation 
Presentation: smart 
Input facility: keyword and 
sophisticated multiple entry 
system 

Response: fast 
General rating: an original, 
animated adventure 

Atmosphere 9 

Vocabulary 9 

Logic 9 

Addictive quality 9 

Overall 9 



THE TERRORS OF 
TRANTOSS 

Producer: Ar iota soft 

Authors: Ram Jam Corporation 



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Us at times like these that J wish 
Id marshalled my back issues of 
CRASH into some semblance of 
order, perhaps with the help of 
those binders loot within Ihe 
plethora of sweatshirts and 
peaked caps to be found in our 
beloved magazine. It has been 
stated by meny a more acad- 
emic devotee than myself ihai 
the universe is becoming more 
chaotic, not due to man's ttrug 
gling with Sunday trading Or the 
thinness of bin liners, no, but to 
some mnate Physical Law, an 
inescapable truth even outside 
university Physics departments. 
The best laws can only be dis- 
proves by travelling to the vary 
edges of the universe and 
proven by simply opening one's 
eyes. This idea of the whole 
works spiral ting into a state of 
devilish disorder is indeed a 
good one as the evidence does 
fie right before me — on my desk 
to be precise Someone once 
said (or was it scowled?) an un* 
tidy desk is a sign of an untidy 
m 1 nd and th is is born e o ut by the 
unruly state of my desk when 
compared to that of my bank 
manager's. 

This lengthy introduction you 
might be surprised to discover is 
indeed an attempt to outdo that 
lengthy discourse which pre- 
ceded a rather favourable 
review of Ram Jam's last adv- 
enture, Valkyrie 17, reviewed 
way back in a month with not- 
ables such as Return to Eden, 
Twtn Kingdom V&iley r Out of the 
Shadows, Tower of Despair, and 
£ve of fla«. Such months are, 
alas, conspicuously rare these 
days. As you may gather from 
the intro to this piece, it took me 
quite some time to discover this 
all happened way back m 



December 84 

Let's look at the bumph be- 
hind this one now because it 
seems to me we both need a rest 
from long discourses on dis- 
order in the universe. 

In the region of Hepshal. south 
of the dark mountains of 
Mo n ran. lies a smal I vil lage on a 
road that leads to a far off city. 
Sinister things were happening 
during the hours of darkness, as 
each mght when the villagers 
locked themselves into their 
homes a few of them would 
have disappeared by daybreak. 
Ancient legend told of an evil 
Xyradd called Trantoss, one of 
the undead who was banished 
to the far off mountains with alt 
his powers removed by the long 
dead Wizards of Vane The 
legend told of a golden, mace 
that gave Trantoss his powars. 
This the wizards smashed and 
the pieces were scattered over 
the mountains 

Now, the wise men of the v i 1 1 age 
believe, Trantoss must still be 
alive and he must have collected 
together the pieces of the mace. 
His power is returning. All they 
can hope to do is to destroy the 
mace once again before all his 
powers return. They need a 
brave man to venture along the 
lost paths into the mountains. 
None of the villagers are pre 
pared to take the risks involved 
until one night, two brothers 
awake to find the rest of their 
family has disappeared into the 
darkness. These two, Lobo the 
woodcutter, a large, slow man, 
and his brother Scam, a nimble 
chap of dubious character, 
agree to go on the quest. Vou 
join the plot as they are equip- 
ping themselves in the village 
and your job is to guide these 



two disparate characters. 

That's better, 1 feel quite 
refreshed and ready to get stuck 
into this review now. 

Loading up, you are presented 
whh a most impressive and pro- 
fessional display composed of 
three main parts, On the left is a 
tall, thin picture of where you 
stand, The pictures here are 
detailed and informative, given 
their very limited area, In the 
middle is a column symbolically 
depicting the two main charac- 
ters Lobo and Scam with the 
chap currently playing high- 
lighted in yellow, and the other 
either green when in the same 
location as the chap playing, or 
blue if he has found a place of his 
own. During play the two 
brothers can be parted and 
joined to suit the style of play in 
anyone instant. 

The story is read from a scrol- 
ling column on the right of the 
screen, which is where you input 
as well, and tells of your travels 
from a village street with tavern, 
store and house to the forbid- 
ding mountains beyond. Inside 
the store the storekeeper bids 
you to take all you need for your 
quest and you'd have to be 
pretty ungrateful not to take 
many of the things he offers — 
which can be achieved with the 
ever useful GET AU, command. 
Inside the house are a woollen 
blanket and a couple of gold 
coins but these are soon aug- 
mented with the things from the 
cupboard which is seen to Open 
in the picture — always a wel- 
come addition it is in the tavern 
where a real advance is made 
and you begin the adventure 
proper, but I'll leave you to 



discover how to proceed and 
how to deal with the dog found a 
littlrj further along the way. 

Terrors of Trantoss is a very 
professionally produced 

adventure with an attractive 
display and graphics. The char- 
acter set has been tastefully 
redesigned to fit neatly into its 
column on the right of the 
screen, looking much smarter 
and more compact than the 
usual sprawling Spectrum text. 
The dame is very easy to get 
into, being eminently playable 
and making up for any perturb- 
ations caused by its Jack of an 
effective EXAMINE command 
and the adventure's slow, plod- 
ding pace, The control of two 
very different characters show- 
ing widely divergent attributes 
adds that little something to 
gameplay as you swap from one 
to the other in order to leckle 
different problems. All in all, a 
very worthy release from the 
Ram Jam team. 



COMMENTS 



Difficulty: easy to get into 

Graphics: good 

Presentation: appealing and a 

Utile different 

Input facility: verb/ noun 

Response: slow 

General rating: very interesting 

Atmosphere 8 

Vocabulary 7 

Logic 8 

Addictive Quality 8 

Overall 8 



THE ELEVENTH 
HOUR 

Producer: Venturesoft 

Price: £3.99 

Author: Terry Braverman 



The newspapers proclaim 
Bomb scare at Harridges 1 and 
fear pervades the air as fleets of 
ambulances stand by. The 
janitor of Harridges, driven mad 
by years of low pay and hurmli 
ation over his lowly status, has 
finally gone stark raving 
bonkers. As a final, desperate 
act of hopelessness he has 
planted bombs in locations 
throughout the enormous 
department store. Toting a 
loaded shotgun he shuffles 
between floors reflecting on his 
predicament. The store will be 
reduced to rubble in the 
eleventh hour, 

You play the bomb disposal 
expert Unarmed, you enter the 
store and must overcome the 
problems with the many lifts 
and defuse the bombs. All the 
while you have to keep an eye 
out far the demented janitor. 



The bombs are set to detonate at 
predetermined intervals: you 
nave plenty of time to find them 
but calculating exactly how ty 
defuse the devices will prove 
difficult and time-consuming. If 
you are caug ht on the same floor 
as an exploding device then say 
your prayers — if a bomb goes 
off on some other floor then all 
might appear fine, it's just that 
the structure of the whole build 
tng deteriorates with each blast 
Care must be taken not to cause 
a bomb to explode by accident 
as they are fiendishly concealed 
about the store by someone 
very familiar with the layout of 
each department. 

As jf all this as not enough to 
contend with, there is a time 
limit of 660 minutes I in reality 
660 turns) in which the bombs 
have to be defused, and the 
game is interrupted at regular 

CRASH June 1986 89 




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intervals by our frustrated and 
clever janitor posing ihe kind at 
questions which are some 
indication of his undoubtedly 
high IQ, The realisation that the 
game gets more difficult is 
rather demoralising, should you 
find yourself struggling; after 
460 minutes the game decides 
to give you an even rougher ride 
the worse you are doing! 

Eleventh Httur has some very 
good pictures dispersed 
throughout the game, giving the 
atmosphere something con- 
crete around which to coalesce. 



The redesigned character set is 
another plus and The Patch adds 
sound even if many of The 
Patch's utterances are grafted 
onto the plot — train sounds 
where there era no trains, and 
the most musical dripping tap 
I've ever heard! The RAM SAVE 
is, as ever, useful and the 
EXAMINE command is used to 
good effect. 

Eleventh Hour can be pur- 
chased by marl order from 
Venturesort at 23 Aragon Close. 
Kings Hedges. Cambridge CB4 



COMMENTS 



Difficulty moderate 
Graphics: very good 
Presentation: nice 
Input facility: verb/ noun 
Response: fast Qwtl response 
General rating : good value 

Atmosphere 

Vocabulary 

Logic 

Addictive Quality 

Overall 



7 

7 
7 
7 

7 




FIND , GUP SELF Ol\ 
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ALIE 

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EXTRICATOR 



Producer: Precision Games 

Price: £2.99 

Author: P & C Hoar. D Hayter, S Boral 



You are an Earth agent working 
for a top security company on a 
government assignment to infil- 
trate the Star Fleet Command 
HO on the planet Arg. Once 

90 CRASH June 1986 



settled, you are to extricate a 
Prof Roberts who is imprisoned 
in the detention area of the 
Complex, known as the Green 
Sector. Reaching the Green 



Sector is difficult enough, but it 
is also necessary to deactivate 
the shuttle bay security system 
by sabotaging the main com- 
puter. This being done, a time 
limit is set, its end marked by the 
completion of the repair of the 
security system by which time 
the pro fess or should be through 
the shuttle bay and off the pla- 
net. Whan the time left is really 
low, a warning klaxon sounds 
out signalling a most worrying 
lack of moves left for your 
escape. 



Before I forget. I should men 
tion that this game has some- 
thing exotic on the flip side. 
fntntic is a specially Written 
piece of music by Bat Hoar li Is 
unusual in that no actual instru- 
ments have been used in its 
recording as all of the sounds 
have been digitally sampled thr- 
ough a Spectrum micro and 
played beck through the Spec 
trum's own keyboard and then 
mu It i -tracked on a Porta -Studio, 
Hearing ihe music, v\'% impress- 
ive to note that no other external 
effects were used. 

Back to the adventure which is 
Quitted, illustrated and Patched. 
This last utility ensures RAM 
SAVE and sound effects, but the 
game in addition offers the op- 
portunity to alter the typeface. 
Although any change to the 
Spectrum capitals might have 
been thought an improvement I 
rather thought that the home 
grown typeface offered was, if 
anything, worse and less 
distinctive. 

You kick off this one on an 
alien plain with purple grass 
swaying in the bra&te. The only 
exit leads south but travelling 
south, the onfy way to go is back 
the way you came. Clearly you 
ve missed something and that 
something is literally staring 
you in the face. Clues in graphics 
are very much my idea of good 
and imaginative adventuring 
and this game has already made 
a good impression after onfy a 
few opening frames. Since I've 
given this part away I feel res- 
trained to give no mora at this 
point so take it from me that in 
the next instance of getting 
somewhere the game demon- 
strates another welcome feature 
with a persistence of an activity 
paying off handsomely land no, 
I don't mean WAIT which would 
not count as such an interesting 
feature). 

Extncator is a rather good 
adventure for £2.99. Amongst its 
many strong points I would 
Count its sense Of humour (for 
instance, the Sony Walkman 
bedecked skeleton), the clues 

hidden with i n te xt a n d g r a ph ics . 
and the pleasantly informative 
EXAMINE command as the 
most praiseworthy. The prob- 
lems are within the ken of even 
an average adventurer but wat- 
ching them go down still pro- 
vides a considerable amount of 
pleasure, which is what adven- 
turing is all about. 

Difficulty : easy for quite some 
way 

Graphics: good enough 
Pres e nt a ti on: nothing special 
Input facility: verb/noun 
Response: fast Quill response 
General rating: many 
praiseworthy features 



Atmosphere 7 

Vocabulary 7 

Log ic 8 

Addictive Quality 8 

Overall 8 




potential agent's armoury from 
the Agent Training School. Your 
task is to be completed within 
six hours. 

Before you load the mil in pro- 
gram (following the instruc- 
tions) you are asked for 'Pictures 
on or off?' Also, a very helpful 
note tells you to start your map 
at bottom left of your paper. 
Whatever else night be said of 
this adventure it certainly knows 
how to be polite and knows how 
to woo the weary adventurer. 



COMMENTS 



Difficulty: difficult 
Graphics: average 
P re * on ution: good 
input faculty: v/n 
Response: sluggish 
General rating: good value 

Atmosphere 7 

Vocabulary 6 

Logic 6 

Addictive Quality 7 

Overall 7 




SPY TRILOGY 



Producer: Tartan Software 
Price: £2.50 
Author : T Frost 



This set of three programs was 
devised using Titian 1 very own 
Advwntum System, a program- 
ming aid which can be used by 
anyone conversant with BASIC 
who has no desire to purchase 
the more expensive utilities on 
the market (Ta nan's system 
only costs £4.50). Machine code 
routines are used but these are 
generated from a code genera- 
tor program and no knowledge 
of machine code is required to 
make use of the system. The 
gome. Spy Trifogy, might also 
be seen as an advert for the kind 
of things the utility can achieve 
such as split-screen scrolling 
and RAM SAVE. 

The three linked adventures 
must be completed in the cor- 
rect sequence. At the and of 
each you are given a code word 
which enables you to proceed to 
the next adventure. Time is an 
important and limiting factor, so 
to make things a Irttia easier to 



begin with the clock is switched 
off in the first two adventures. 
Further encouragement lies in 
the fact that a practice mode is 
offered on die first game which 
leads into a real game once the 
90% mark is reached . 

There's a bit at the start of this 
game— f'm not sure whether it 
is a joke or something which is 
explained later on. The program 
asks for your name, you dutifully 
type it in, and then the game 
immediate! v starts with your 
name. Bond (he of the leggy 
Sports car helicopter movies). 
You have decided to apply for 
the secret service. To weed out 
those with enough sense to 
avoid risking their lives playing 
with poison darts and the like, 
you are exposed to a suitability 
test, This tests you r intel li gence, 
aptitude and application of logic 
to the very limit. You are placed 
in the simulated situation of 
having to collect five items of a 



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CRASH June 1986 91 




Stmon Williamson from South 
Wirral writes: 

'T*lease help me! I'm stuck on 

SUBSUNK by Firebird. 

1] How do you enter the cold 

room and get the food, without 

being gassed by mouldy 

potatoes? 

2 1 Where do you find the 

bottle containing aspirin? 

3) How do you open the 
medicine cabinet? 

4) Can you open the packing 
r found in the locker room?" 



To pro feet yourself from the 
moukfy potatoes you need to 
iMtr ffte Old Spies After- 
Shave found in the caaa. To 
open the case GJSF HVO BU 
DBTF. The aspirins ere, mm 
you would guess, in the 
medicine chest which it 
opened' using the QBQFS 
OMJQ found on the 
DBOUBJOT EFTL. QJDL 



Chnster Anderson from 
Denmark is having problems 
with HEROES OF KARN end 

asks: 

"How can I get rid of the person 
preventing me from getting the 
money needed to bribe the 
guerdtetaf? 

What use is Beren the King? 

Whet use is the brbte?" 

The money is guarded by e 
Barrowight. Voti must UMM 
CBSSPXJHtU XJUI CJCMF 
and then take the money* 
You wiH find Beren useful 
later on in the game- 1 would 
Ifke to thank J Pennington of 
St. Helens for providing help 
on this game. 



Chrts Tanner and William 
Bu/man era having difficulty 
in Level 9 's excellent RED 
MOON and write: 

"There are three problem* 

which prevent u* getting any 

further, these being the chesm. 
the room wrth blind ing lights 
end ell rooms with water 
involved. 

We think that the acorn and 
the scroll will get us across the 
chasm and that the gas mask 
and tubing have soma relevance 
to the flooded rooms. Another 
problem is how to save KelK the 
Human from dying of thirst " 

To prevent Kvllt dying of 
thirst simply GJMM S 
CPUUMFXJUI XBUFS and 
take it to him. To pass the 
Chasm, drop the ecarn beside 
it. To travel underwater you 
wiil need a OMBTL as well as 
the gam mask and the tubing. 
As for any troubteso.rve 
lights, the black bail could 
prove useful. 

Richard Losdben&r of Witham, 

a^*aw*S9^a\ aw ehiae'eV'sr * 
eav'apva'^Bflp^ eapsrv^^P * 

'How da I buy the claw hammer 
and screwdriver on E MERALD 
ISLE? I have found the treasure 
by the palm tree and lit the 
lamp Whet do I need to pey?" 

GotofneOB5Qfl5Lancfg*f 
tfre XBMMFU Take thh to 
the OPMJDF TUBUJPQ end 
you will receive e reward 
which can be used to buy the 
items. 




Several adventurers have 
requested help on 
MthlDSHADOW. being unable 
to progress any further after 
getting aboard the ship. 

Andrew Riley in Essen 
provides the following help: 
Once aboard the sh ip, go IV, 
nf, S into the cabin and kill 
the man, go into the kitchens 
and taka the meat c/e ver. 
Next go to the lifeboat and 
take the canvas out. Findtha 
anchor and cut the chain. Go 
fO fho plonk and walk across 
it Into the Royal Ptavy Vessel. 
You have now camp te tmd 
pert 1. 

This month a couple more 
adventurers era stuck on 
KENTILLA. Robert Holt from 
Rochdale writes: 

'1 was playing KENTILLA and 
using the tips that 1 could find in 
bach issues of CRASH But I still 
cannot find the iron Rod, Gold 
Key or the Trol I's den . 

Please could you help me find 
the above and could you also 
tell me how to use the yellow 
scroll, how to get the green 
scroll hum Zekla's tair without 
dieing and also how to flic the 
wooden boat when you try to 
get to the black tower as I 
always drown in the see. due to 
the boat sinking. 

In a beck issue you say that 
there is a conch shell on the 
beech. If this is SO then I cannot 

locate it, so could you tell me 
how to get H." 

To prevent Zekse from 

roasting you, you must 
rescue Tertendra end taka 
her to Znkta: you can then 

Kt the scroll. The wooden 
at cannot be fined, but the 
silver chalice con be used to 
bailout the water. To find the 
conch shell you need to dig In 
the sand. 



On the some gome, D 
Angelone in Belfast asks: 

"How do I obtain the key that 
opens the chest in Ty Ion's 
castle. The Oracle says Grako 
cant be beaten without 
Veinors staff where is it? 

How do I obtain graphite to 
cast the Fire Protection Spell? 

What use is the talisman in 
the adventure? 

How do I get past the ward of 
disintegration?*' 

The key to the chest can be 
found in Ty ton's bedroom by 
examining the bedpost. 
Veinor's staff can be found in 
the chest and this staff Is 
used to pass the ward. To 
obtain graphite for the spelt 
SFNPWF EJBNPOE QSPN 
UBMJTNBO XJUI TXPSEand 
then heat them in the 
furnace. 

Darren Hogg of Leeds is 
having trouble with Firebird's 
THE HELM and asks: 

'Is it possible to enter the small 
store hut south of 
Cocklehempton? 

Please, please, teli me how to 
erOM the narrow gorge " 

ft is possible to open the hut. 
First you need the rope and 
thehook r then UJFSPOF, go 
to the welt and HP QJTVJOH. 
You now have thekmy. By 
digging at the appropriate 
sign you should be able to 
find a board to enable you to 
cross the gorge. 

C Moors from Middlesbrough 
re stuclc eariy on in THE HULK 
being unable to get any 
further than the high gravity 
area. 

Although it appears that you 
keep returning to the same 
place, in fact therm are 
several domes which look 
the some from the outside* 
ctttoring these re the key fo 
progress. 

pScRV^fiosTCORNER' 



m 



It's fta&Uj to 5f*iiK BmosfcW j 

EJW.I5H ZHBCPEF&HIJKL 
BKWytX «teC0EF6HllKt-tn 



WWttlt* Nt>P*ftSTuV*X>f"Z 



flrP-E-R-H-E-ffO-E* 

C Qavies from Hambleton. Near Blackpool is this months first 
SUPERHERO, completing Sitversoft's ROSIN OF SHERLOCK on the 
morning of April the first The hnal message was, " 'Well done*' 
Shrieked Lestrade alter he had restored Hum to his rightful position, 
the case was aver, though il was true that Mortartv later escaped 
I 'eft the forest " 

Marian arrived end she end the rest of Robin's Merry Mart went 
down to the levem to indulge 

Our second SUPERHERO of the month is Stacey Beaumont of 
Enfield who completed THE MURAL from the FOURMQST AD- 
VENTURES tape on the 28th of March and received the following 
message: "Well done' You have successfully completed the task set 
you, and so have won a week's holiday for two in the Bahamas. All 
you have to do ts pay travelling expenses and hotel fees Also 
spending money may be useful You hove the everiasung thanks of 
Hairy Ttghtmnuse Board of Censors. May Wogan go with you. Roger 
and nut Can?(oraSamy^" 



S 



FEATURING 








• 



'.'// 






S7& 







r 







SCOTT/ 

with ani 



H*£ 



0*4 



^5S 



M you control (Ji* m^rome powrii or !wo 

M«rwf •suprr Hmn « the tan* Umt, Ml mew 

Allen H«»f* (ram ttw jop of ih. evil D, Doom ' 

mi due th* (hrt of iht Nftity «ed«towd Quwtpmb. 

ww, whmi by Icon murk ttw undaputrt matt* 4 

*• *n Dl adnntur* wr**i£ you rwvr to wnirol both 

T* l>ung and Th» Kumar Hwrh Mi thaw miuion Hl by 

9wCh*< bwiww, to mtu* Allen M«!«i front 

tr» evil tirnx of Dr Doom 




i* 

* 

* 



^ 




*** * ********* 



m& 



ADVENTURES 



* 
* 
* 

• I 






CBM64 




DISK E 1*95 



CASS E9 95 



AMSTBAD DISK £14.95 

SPECTRUM JfiK 



CASSMW 



ATARI 



CASS E»93 



DISK ONLY CU 95 



eBC/ELECraCH fTPfTONLY) CASS GNU 1 £7 95 




UNRAVELLING 
THE TANGLED WEB 

Dear Dank, 

I thought I'd give you a few 
mora helpful routing along the 
lines Of D fv$tof% {Jbsue 27 1 
Th is routine prints a vocabulary 
list for Adventure inter not lonal's 
excellent SP1DERMAN Unfort 
unatety. some Of the words will 
be joined together, but it isn't 
too difficult to decipher: [Re- 
member — CLEAR 24500 before 
you start), 

First LOAD the main block of 
code (after the logo' file) then 

10 FOR N - 36891 TO 38200 : 
LET Q = PEEK N : F Q > 64 AND 
Q 91 7T«N PRINT CHR*Q. 
GOTO 12 1 1 PRINT 12 NEXT N 

Use this routine to achieve the 
same thing In SMUGGLER'S 
COVE {alright. I know it s • bit 
old, but It's not bad n* lly). 
LOAD the main coda and type: 

10FORN 4023STO41438 
LETQ PEEK N IF Q 64 AND 
G 90 Oft 32 THEN PRINT 
CHRSQ12NEXTN 

On SPIDtTuVlAN I cannot get 

any further than priming the 
newspaper and storing hs gem. 
On SMUGGLERS COVE I cannot 
do anything to make the donkey 
chase the bag of carrot* after 
nerneswng nenivinean. 



rior than another one wHi ap- 
pear. This wtfl go on for quite 
soma time but n Is a good 
chance to boost your magic or 



In SMUGGtMRS COVE enter 
the lift mad then throw the 



DEAUNG WITH 

DUNGEON 

DENIZENS 

Dear Derek, 

After reading your review of 
PSS's SWORDS ft SORCERY I 
rushed out and bought a copy. I 
agree with your review apart 
from the fact that you thought 
the input system was awkward 
I found it awkward at first but I 
have soon got used to it 
Anyway, bent are a few tips 

bfe^> #elh^» ^^u^^—jB^^^^B, i ■ , 

•or pie eaosnem game 

1) When training a character 
don't bother with Villa or Hub- 
ris, So far t have not been able to 
pick a lock end I have only 
sensed a pk once 

2) When arming your charact- 
er ft h best to choose these 
weapons: a sword, a shield, and 
some armour Always choose 

the armour las.t as rt w^\ up all 



5Ti 



.W.'. 1 ,''! 



i) The only monsters worth 
talking to are the Armoured 
Warriors. These can usually be 
made to surrender by doing a bit 
of boasting until the monster 
starts to grovel Then try 'sur- 
render on them. K this doesn't 
work try threatening them. 
Don't use insults as monsters 
don't Ota being called a 
infested dung heap etc 
41 In the room, that is the 
eastern end of the north side 
pas s a g e, there ii a cup If you try 
to leave the room with the cup 
then you will be attacked by a 
cat warrior If you kill the war- 

94 CRASH June 1986 






sr ki the Coal Shed there is a 
staff. « that staff i* used rt will 
deplete your magical strength. 
However, f you hold the staff 
then your str engt h is boos te d 
making two more apsis 
accessible. 

6| finaHy. here are a few gen 
era! tips The password (wher- 
ever that comes In) is coal I 
thkifcl 

rf a cup is dropped in the 
Banquet Hell then the word 
■Ring' appears Something hap- 
pens but I don't know what yet. 
The crowns that ant found in 
Quadrant One don't seem to do 
anything though I could be 
wrong ! I have found no use for 
the amulets or pendants but be 
careful when dropping them as 
they tend to cause any object 
that is dr o pped* on top to 



Don't use your gold for bribe*. 
It a best to store it in an empty 
room as it may come in handy in 
the village 

If the contents of • bottk* 
taste of peppermint then save 
them until you are fighting a 
monster much stronger than 
yourself. Then If you drink, your 
maximum number of hits will be 
decreased by about ten. This 
doesn't always work fn cause 
soma bottles contain pepper- 
mint flavoured poison I 

Alan Price. Leeds 

WHO'S MERP? 

Deer Derek, 

I have purchased a copy of 
SWORDS & SORCERY, having 
COSkM of DAD, AD&D. MERP 
end RUNEQUEST already I 
have to say that rt is a very good 
game made infinitely better by 
die add-on modules that wilt be 
available There are a few bugs 
{taste the bottle in the dining 
room and the game crashes, 
when you die ki the 3rd quad 
rant press the movement key to 
ap p eal on the other side of the 
moving walls L I think the talk- 
ing sequence could be better 
having only been able lo talk to 
two room creatures. I think 
there would be an opening for a 
two player game having onh/ six 
game keys lo use and spirt 
screen. All in ail. h is in the spirit 
of role-playing games, though 
something to have checked 
magic items would have been 
helpful 

Now for some tips. Smashing 
open chests increases strength 
while 'pick* and 'open' increase 
thievish ability There Is * magic 
staff that increases spell points 
and abMHy on the second room 
up on the right hand side. You 
must be mainly a magic user to 
use it so don't use it otherwise. 






rt drains spell power to kill 
creatures outright and event* 
ualry kills you 
Here are some attack and de- 

DODGE stops LUNGE, THRUST 
STAND not a good defence 
PARRY stops HACK 
SHIELD sometimes stops HACK. 
LUNGE, THRUST 
ATTACK any damage inflicted 
on you also taken by the attacker 
HACK can slay outright a RE- 
TREATING foe 

PUNCH Okay until very good at 
unarmed combat, when MAIM 
begins to appear 
end defences aie KICK. BITE, 
BLOCK. GRAPPLE 
VILLAINY if you attack a mon- 
ster first, your villainy and to 
ty increases, 

A good way to build up strength 
is to go To 3 guard room and 
keep going in and out to get lots 
of skeletons For every three 
monsters you kill you can get 
one point on magic or corneal 
skill depending on which menu 
you used last This way. 

'ood runs out (a bug in the 
'w (routine I think J, you can 
batter (hem. 

Drew Dubber. Lincoln 



k**r^ 



There should be a few 
SWORDS aV SORCERY tips in 
Hmnnah Smith'* Pitying tktm 
thi* month, apace pmrmm- 
f understand sne's 



/0% A 



2W -*- « 



-+>* 



k 


• ; -.^9v\ -aw 




x\ 


^>r 


W: i 



't 




STEALING 
TREASURE, 
SWINGING AXES 
AND GENERALLY 
HAVING A GOOD 
TIME 

After leading April s CRASH I 
decided to write to you. I've 
boon playing RPGs »or *ome 
lime now and I wonder rf Dun ■ 
as cvh escaped 
from a dungeon. I think not M hit 
letter is anything to go by 

Any RPG character would 
look around and maybe listen 
for dues before charging si a 
tower, even the most stupid 
ones. Anyway, ha would ioum- 
th other people and they 
would Stop him charging at the 



The whole Idee of RPGs b 
playing with other people. This 
k where computer games faH 
short. To get nearer to RPGs 
games would have to have an 
extremely intelligent input sys- 
tem to cope with sfmost any 
command the player types in. 
The player should be able to 
explore most of the gsme by 
solving the occasional easy 
problem, There should alao be a 
tew hard problems essential to 
completing the game. The des- 
criptions should be long and 
detailed with occasional high 



T^emost important thing » 
Jntsfltgont computer -controlled 
characters that the player can 
have conversations with, but I 

long way off. 

Another way is multi-user 
dungeons, but for MUDs you 
need a modem end they ate 
expensive Just imagine an 
adven tu re game with SS other 
people. Stealing their treasure* 
tseung to them and hitting 
them with axes 

Holding conversations can be 
brilliant as you can say anything 
you want not Just what a pro- 
grammer wants you to say. 

A John. Cleveland 

HOW TO DESTROY 
KORDOMIR 

Dear Derek. 

After reading £ Long** letter last 
month I decided to send in the 
rest of the solution to Firebird's 
RUNES TONE After gaining the 
spells from Chrone. ask Questor 
for help end he wHI tail you that 
there Is a lake ki the deserted 
lend which wHI restore your 
strength when you drink the 
water. Go to the lake and res- 
tore everyone's strength Mow 
go to Kr illct h's Tower and res- 
cue everyone {it Is more than 
likely Greymarel will have been 
caught and you need him to 
complete the game). Then go to 
the lake and restore everyone's 
su o ng t f i again. Change to Grey- 
marel and take everybody to 
Gruit's Tower. Defeat him and 
take the ring, wear the ring Go 
to the Saromundof s hut end 
cast Sbataroth on him lyou 
need the Book of Zarimir for the 
to work). Take the Rune- 
stone and leave the hut From 
Saromunder s hut go W. W, W 
W, W. S, S. W, W, H. N. W. W. N, 
N. E. N. N, W, W, W, N, N. E. E, L 
N. E, N.NW, W S. W W.W 

You should now be able to see 
KordomVs Fortress. Make sure 
you are G reymarel and you are 
w e aring the ring, and you have 
the Runestone. Go Into the 
feitisn and Kordomir will be 
destroyed 

A Redman. Bristol 






SAS ASSAULT 

I neve recently read the letter* 
IMsi* Whatttng, Aittd ab tor- 
worth) regarding the FOURTH 
PROTOCOL, I have compiled the 
solution to part three: The SAS 
Assault. I hope you find it use' 

The warehouse to go to is 
TlPTflee 

21 Select Browning automatic 
pistols and grenades for all of 
the men except Valentine. For 
him choose the Wing master 
door opening pumpgun. 

3) Start ail six men in room E 

4) (BILBOW) BOMB NORTH 
(FULL PIN, THROW GRENADE, 
N> 

5) Move all men north 

6) (VALENTINE) SHOOT DOOR 
(GRANT) BOMB SOUTH. 

SOUTH BOMB WEST 

8) (BILBOW* SOUTH. WEST. 
BOMB SOUTH 

9) (CROMWELL! SOUTH. 
WEST. BOMB WEST WEST. 
BOMB SOUTH 

1f>| (STUART) SOUTH WEST, 
WEST. BOMB NORTH. NORTH. 
BOMB EAST 

1 1 ) IHUMBAR) SOUTH WEST 
WEST. NORTH. EAST. BOMB 
NORTH NORTH. BOMB WEST 

12) (VALENTINE I NORTH 
EXAMINE CABINET US 
12061967 

131 PRESS KEY RYG 

CUT WIRE 
AND WAIT FOR THE CLOCK TO 
STOP 

Colin Davidson. Wimbledon 

OUT OF THE 
SHADOWS 

Dear Derek. 

With the release of the adverv 
tuna compilation FOURMOST 
ADVtNTURES. it « very hasty 
that Mi/ar't OUT OF THE SHA- 
DOWS wit finally receive the 
acclaim it deserves from other 
magazines and a wider group of 
player? So, to hefo all the new 
players build Up ■ powerful 
chei ec t a i quickly I have sent in 
my method and tips in addition 
to those sent In by GQB Waven- 
thina in issue 16 (May BS) 

The best dungeon set up I 
have found so far is JOHN and it 
ta around this dungeon I will 
develop the tape. For the begin- 
ner t suggest that the default 
character kt used to get the feel 
of the game. After a white you 
may feel that you are ready to 
work on your own character If 
you choose my method, then at 
the start go west off the screen 
and open the box you find there. 
Take the tinderbox out and head 
back east onto the starting 
screen. From here go north two 
scieam and west one, and you 
should be on the screen with the 
Shop. Buy a torch and head back 
to home- 
On the home screen there is a 
stairway foacfkiQ down to the 







first level. Go down this stair- 
way after lighting the torch. The 
room is occupied by imps who 
don't attack unless you do In 
thts room there la a chest con- 
taining 16 silver coins The chest 
may need to be attacked a few 
times b ef or e it ooens 

After getting the coins, return 
to home, put out the fight (not at 
night), stand on the heating 
and quit the game. You 
ten be laced with a menu 
from which you should select 3 
(new dungeon). Next there will 
be a menu asking about quests 
which you should ignore (just 
type one of the numbers) and 
finally a screen asking you the 
title of the dungeon (JOHN). 
When you go back to the game 
you will have the same items in 
your possession Go to the 
stairway and into the room be- 
low. Get the money from the 
chest and go back north. From 
there on it is a case of following 
this routine until you can afford 
a mace, a shield, a helmet and 
some more torche s When you 
have these objects then from 
the room with the coins in, go 
south to S room containing 
about six skeletons. Unlike the 
imps, you must kill these, so 
Unit deer the room full of 
and go south 

When In combat with the ske- 
letons kilt as many as possible, 
but if the life bar goes while 
then go back home to heal 
When the) room *% totally dear 
of nasties open the box which 1* 
in the SW comer of the screen. 
This one has a helmet In rt then 
go north to the shop and seH it rf 
you keep doing this then the 
profits should rise quite quickly. 
When you have got s bit more 
armour then leave the room 
with the skeletons and go M 
to a room with xombies in rt 
The box is at the top of the 
s creen and has a dub in it From 
this scr een go north to another 
room with zombies, kill them 
and there is a chest with 15 
silver coins in it. Also in this 
room there is a stairway. Go up 
this and west one screen to get 
home, or north twice to 
shop. Sell the clubs 

for more cash and 
before too long you should have 
lots of money 

Get e sword for quicker kilts, a 
lantern for more light for longer 
periods, 3 oils (for now), some 
food (should need aome toon) 
and e full suh of armour. The 
armour holds you invulnerable 
to attack but can disappear 
without trace. 

Another problem with 
armour kt that it is very heavy 
and it puts you out of breath 
quickly When you fancy having 
a go at ■ quest buy 
markers and plot paths directly 
north with markers every 
steps of the way home until you 
reach the house again. Now do 
the same going west Thl 
vents y<nt gcttiny lost when ' 
come out of the dungeons attar 
finding the quest. To build up 
your experience quickly go 
down as many stairs as possfttte 
to find dragons and balrogs To 
a character with HttJe 
enee these are worth a 
* experience points 

John MayrW. Warw. 

CRASH June 1986 





/ 



f 







KB! 



I)! J) J!rr) j j| 1 


||«pgtrfil»M 






TIMETRAX 



Ju»t oft#r lh« Holotouii you wouldn't think anything die could go wrong now w«vM you? Thore you w*rft jilting procc-fully in 
your crllor, trying To have fh« ntrvdut breakdown you've rarnnd and the nemt thing you know you're irlhtiq aul through the 

Portall Id Itop the Evil One irndinq uiundn the lahrif of trroMon. Samr doyi nothing qoel right . . . 
An amoiing, all-action, animated adventurt acroii the ogei of Man to love civilisation. You'll be able lo start playing it in rninul** 

bur you mightn't linnh it for yttart! 
WARNING: I hit qamr could damage your tacial life. TIMCYR AX l* an addicliv« habit, 

COMMODORE 64, SPECTRUM or AMSTRAD: £9.95. 



lib VrBnPtrViSaAowrfitMHK 

I In m I l,-i „ ■;■ Ktconl Mn.i 

I imJ.ni \MK 'INI 

u h phwu I'^IMJ. 



/MIND GXMES 



Six CRASH Sweatshirts 
and Hats up for grabs too! 




Tableau Un 




Tableau Deux 




Well, thank heavens for that. 
Jacques the loon Ml French 
Competition Minion has finally 
gone home, leaving little mora 
man a reek of garlic in the 
broom cupboard and memories 
of several happy hours chatting 
about the venue for my holiday 
this year. 

This particular Minion is 
going to have great fun 
annoying Monsieur La Minion In 
a couple of month's time when 
he gats to go to France on his 
holkdaypoos. I've already 
booked in to Jacques' wine 
Getter In the offices of a French 
computer magazine and I can't 
wart to see how competitions 
are done across the channel ! 

Since he want home, Ja cq ues 
has sent me a very polite Thank 
You tetter, enclosing a sketch of 
the wrne cellar to which he 
retires whan people start 
chasing hen to do soma work,. 

Looks great to me- No nasty 
broomsticks to dig into your 
back as you snooze, no bleach 
and cleaning materials to pong 
the place out . , . and all those 
lovely bottles of vino within 
comfortable reach, just in case 
you get thirsty while on the 
skive, 

Tres bon, mon ami, J'arrivecai 
. . . weft, I'll be along soon, 
anyway Meanwhile, oh 
putative (LMLWD> 128 Winners, 
{ I wonder if there's going to be a 
LMLFWD out in time for my 
hols, tt'd be dead good to be 
•bat to impress the French ipoo 



magazine people with my 
knowledge of super long words 
in their own language. Must ask 
Lloyd), meanwhile, on with the 
competition, 

Uncle Ok has doctored a copy 
of Jacques' sketch of his wins 
cellar, so there are now two 
versions reproduced on this 
page, cunning marked UN and 
DEUX (take every chance to 
practice my French, you see, 
every chance) Picture numero 
deux is the one with a few 
change* and there's an entry 
form right by it too. 

To enter, you'll have to ring all 
the d i ff e ren ce s you spot on pic- 
ture deux, complete the entry 
form with your name, address, 
post code and shirt size and 
whizz h off to THIRD 128 COMP, 
CRASH TOWERS, C/o TbeBroo- 
mcupboarzi, TO BOX 10, LUD- 
LOW, SHROPSHIRE, SYStDBtO 
arrive by 26th June. Th is is reeky 
your very last chance to win a 
shiny new 12BK Spectrum cour- 
tesy of NewsfiekJ, publishers of 
CRASH, Don't forget to clip out 
the entry coupon from 61 of the 
May issue of CRASH and itepkt. 
setlotape or glue it firmly to your 
entry form on the little square 
provided, Th is strictly a coupon- 
dippers only competition, I'm 
afraid, so any entries without an 
original coupon from last issue 
will be disallowed, even M they 
are correct in every 
re spect , 

Bonne Chance, autrefois 1 




NAME 



ADDRESS 



SHIRT SEE 



POSTCODE 



"COUPON HERE" 
▼ 



CRASH June 1986 97 



THE GAMES GATHERINGS 

There have always been collector's editions of books, records, tapes, and nowadays even of 
videos. The computer game industry has featured compilations from the very earliest days, 
but there have been a few recent developments in the compilation market, as GRAEME KIDD 
notes . . . 



One Way o' picking up cheap 
copies of original games is to 
pop along to computer shows, 
such as the ZX Microf airs, which 
are invariably attended by com- 
panies Offering all sorts of old 
and not-so-old games at dis- 
count prices. The Great Space 
Pace, for instance, is no joke at 
f 15-odd. but for s couple of 



pounds is makes a reasonable 
bargain, if or>ly for the large box 
which is very handy for keeping 
bits of string, conkers end other 
oddments in 

Budget labels are on the incr- 
ease — and another source of 
cheap games is becoming more 
widely available. Sometimes a 
firm Ike Mastertronic will give 
an 'old' game a new lease of life 
by re-refeasing it at a knock- 
down price, but more often rhen 
not one of the cheapest ways to 
buy games or fill that gap in your 

software 0Oll9CtK>n (f to 5n«p up 

a compilation tape. Compil- 
ations offer value for money, too 
— the price per game for titles 
on compilations ranges from 
around 33p a game in the case of 
Argus Press Softwares 30 
Games to the more usual £2.50 
per-game level. 




CHARITABLE 
INTENT 

Compilations of games put 
together with charitable intent, 
With software houses donating 
games and companies involved 
in duplicating, printing, distn 
bution end sales giving their 
services or working et cost, have 
already raised considerable 
sums for worthy causes. Soft- 
aid, put together specially for 
She Ethiopian Famine appeal 
raised en awful lot of money tor 
famine victims last year, becom- 
ing the biggest chart success in 
the history of computer gaming. 
This year. The Industry (with a 
capital ft has collected together 
ten games under the Off The 
Hook title, which sells for C6.99 
with all profits going to the 
Prince's Trust to alleviate the 
suffering caused by the illegal 
use of drugs. War on Want, the 
charity set up to combat world 
poverty, has also just released a 



ALL HliC 




Many programmers began their * 
careers with compilations of 
their own games, but nowadays 
collections of games tend to be 
put together by buying the 
rights to existing software The 
tape magazines, which seem to 
have faded away, were perhaps 
the last widely available 
medium for "minor games. 

Halesowen based program- 
mer Stewart Green, has leapt 
into the world of software pub- 
lishing with a compilation of six 
of his own games sold for ["4.50 
as the Astmcade Collection 



^ 




IS THE 

FORCE WITH YOU? 



fourteen game compilation tape 
available by mail order (see ma 
advertisement thai should 
apnea t in th is issue I . Spend ing a 
little money having fun and 
contributing to charily at the 
same time is no bad thing 

On the purely commercial 
front, some companies have 
decided to offer collections of 
their own games for sale. 
Hewsons. for instance put 
together a value pack last 



Christmas which was a compil- 
ation in all but name — a shrink 
wrapped set of original games in 
original packing, Such 'collected 
works' are really limited offers 
rather than compilations proper, 
Miknj-Gen is planning to col- 
lect the Wally games together 
one day soon, perhaps putting 
them out back-to-back or includ- 
ing them with budget titles . . . 
the ranks of Walty fans will no 
doubt be swelling soon. 



S OWN WORK 



Taken separately, the individual 
ottes range don't have a greet 
deal to orfer, hut as a collection 
the whole is greater than the 
turn of the parts. 

Simeon is a competent imple- 
mentation of the classic Follow 
the sequence of lights and notes 
game which has nothing much 
lo offer in the way of originality 
but should prove mildly enter- 
taining nevertheless. 

Bomber sets you in the air 
against flying nasties that scroll 
across the background and 
wnich have to be eliminated. 
Collisions with the background 
or the enemy proves fata It o you 
and your craft — and while a sel- 
ection of backgrounds can be 
catted onto trie screen, (he 
garneptay remains basic and 
simple 

Luna Rover is perhaps the 
most addictive of the six games. 
As the title suggests, the player 
controls a ventcle scampering 
from left to right across a rather 
awkward landscape. To survive, 
careful timing of jumps is 
needed as well as some nifty 
work with the rover's accelera- 
tor and brake pedals. 

Alien is a tried and tested ver- 
sion of a 'shoot the nasties as 



they move down at you from the 
top of the screen' game, which 
tests reactions and hand-eye co- 
ordination As a stand alone 
budget title, this game would be 
a bit of a hp off, given the 
standards achieved on budget 
labels nowadays, but at 76p it's 
value for money rating, at least, 
increases to a respectable level. 

In Zombie (he aim of the game 
is to scamper round the on- 
screen playing area gathering 
up goodies and avoiding the 
baddies. Leave one edge of the 
screen and your little man 
sproirvgs back i n to play from the 
other side — which can lead to 
some hairy moments. Quite a 
compulsive little reaction game, 
all in. 

The sixth game in the collec- 
tion is a single key entry adven- 
ture in which the player has to 
search a network of caverns 
looking for treasure. No tedious 
typing in of text in this fast 
moving adventure game! 

Overall, the Astrocade col- 
lection should keep any games 
player quiet for at least an after- 
noon, although the games are 
ultimately vary simple and un- 
likely to have a massive impact 
on the addict iv ny front. 



looming aktng in your L VNAR ftO V£R, on* atttnti* gam+t 
on o ttwr in thm ASTROCADE cotlec (Jan 




Melbourne House supplies 
Mugsy as a freebie with their 
new release, Mugsy's Revenge, 
thus enhancing the monetary 
value of their product quite a bit. 
The same company has also 
entered into a co-operative vent- 
ure with Firebird Act i vision, and 
This quartet of comp- 
anies call themselves The Force 
for the purpose of compiling 
name albums, and so far The 
Force has issued Hotshot s, 
which contains one hit game 
from each team member. Plans 
are apparently afoot to take the 
Christmas market by storm, with 
a collection of games the like of 
which no Spectrum Game 
Player has seen before. Mind- 
shadow, Fighting Warrtor, 
Gyron and Shadowfire plus 
Tuner for £9.99 on the first Hot- 
shots tapes must represent 
good value for anyone who has 
only got a couple of those 
games already. 

Th biggest bumper bag of 
goodies is currently on offer 
from Argus *n the form of 3Q 
Games, which as its title sug- 
gests, leads the field in terms of 
volume. Argus has access to a 
massive beck catalogue of titles 
— software house buy-outs and 
licensing deals as well as in- 
house labels, including tape 
magazines, puts the Argus Press 
Software Group in a very good 
posit ton to go for The Biggest 
Compilation record. As is so 
often happens in life, however, 
quantity is at the expense of 

Suality in the case of 30 Games, 
, few moments spent on mental 
arithmetic produces an average 

Erice of 33p a game — so per- 
aps one shouldn't really expect 
too much of the original titles. 
There are e few neat games 
hidden in the jungle, and half the 
fun of buying 30 Games for 
£3,95 probably lies in loading 
them all, one after another, and 
working oul which ones to load 
again 1 

CHRISSY 
COMPILATION 

Although They Sold A Million is 
a rather ambitious claim to make 
in the title of a compilation — 
unless is contains an awful lot of 
very good games. They Sold A 
Metaphorical Million doesn'i 
have quite the same ring, as 
Ocean/US Gold and The Hit 
Squad no doubt realised when 
they launched their first TSAM 
collection in time for Christmas 
at £9,95. Beach Head I. Jet Set 
Willy, Daley Thompson's 
Decathlon end Sabrewuft got 
the title off the ground, and 
more recenily TSAM II appear- 
ed, giving a new lease of life to 
Bruce Lee, Match paint. Knight 
Lore, and the classic Match Day. 
virgin is yet another company 



well into compilations — WOW' 
Games One and Two hava 
appeared so far, at the slightly 
lower price point of £8.95, with 
the first collection featuring half 
a dozen games I aver age unit 
price £1,49) and WOW! H 
slimmed down a little to the frve 
games level (CI .79 a game to 
save you working it oul). 
Respectable games ail. although 
WOW If probably presents 
slightly better value in that the 
quality of the games is a little 
better as compared with its pre- 
decessor. (That Old argument 
about the Two G's crops up 
again I } 

Ian Stewart, the Main Man at 
Gremlin Graphics hit upon the 
wizard wheeze of going for 
games to put on a compilation 
on the basis of reviews — 
CRASH Reviews, naturally for 
Spectrum software — and the 
first CRASH Smash collection 
has already been let out of the 
Gremlin stable to 100m up the 
charts. Yet another £8.95 col 
lection, this one features Dun 
Derach, Alien 8, Night Gunner 
and Spy Hunter. A neat selection 
of top rate games that is spread 
across a range of gameplaying 
interests, Mr Shorn Gremlin has 
plans for a 'top notch' compila- 
tion in time for Christmas — this 
time featuring at least one 
Gremlin Graphics game. 

THE MARKETING 
APPROACH 



Marketing companies have t 
the possibilities of entering the 
software world without the pain 
and aggravation of actually 
writing games. Beau Jolly has 
assembled several compilations 
for the Spectrum so far: a £5.99 
Value Pack featuring old 
imagine lot Wacky Waiters fame) 
product' the £9.95 Mega Hits 
collection: 6 Computer' Games 
for £6.95 and 10 Computer 
Games for £995 With the poss- 
ible exception of the value pact 
some quite respectable titles 
can be had from Beau -Jolly at a 
very fair price, although their 
£19.95 mega -compilation didn't 
do a storm by all accounts. More 
compilations are on the way 
from the Beau-Jolly team — 
who learnt their trade in the 
record industry. Remember 
K-Tet? 

So far there have bean few 
"theme" compilations, concen- 
trating on the works of one pro- 
grammer or on one kind of 
game Global's Fourmost 
Adventures reviewed by Derek a 
I itt le wh tie ago sprang qu ickfy to 
mind, but resident strategist 
Sean Masterson was at a loss to 
name a Strategy compilation . . . 
perhaps there s still a niche or 
two left unexploitedJn the com- 
pilation market after all! 

The last word in compilations 
must surely go to Fkabird who 
had a bit of fun with a small 
collection of slightly dire games 
that had been submitted for 
consideration to the Silver 
Range. Don't Buy This, para- 
dox tea lly, was sold. But with a 
strong disclaimer and a very 
tongue-in-cheek inlay blurb . . . 



CRASH June T986 99 



{U&fimiBm 



*?> 



Tapper Space Bar 
Tr ashman 12,999 



Airwolf Completed 
Knight Lore Completed 
Jet Set Willy Completed 
Jet Set Willy II 37 looms found 
Chequered Flag Sih/erston* 
57 04 seconds 

Bruce Lee Completed 10 times 
Ghostbusters Sample 
Cosmic WartoAd Toad points 
9,000 

Martin Harwood, South Bretion, 
Peterborough 

Py jamar ww 9 1 % Com pleted 
Exploding FistGth Dan 
Shadowfire Captured 2off 
Bea c ne a d Completed. 250,000 
Hobbit87% 
Airworf 1 Scientist 
Starquake Completed 92% 
Irani Am 6 cups 
Ortwter 1,00O r 253 
Caveton Completed I killed 
wizard | 

Lunar Jetman 8 Rocket stations 
knocked out 

Brainstorm Killed one guardian 
Zoom Been through each screen 
three times 

William Phipps. East Molesey, 

Surrey 

Via Ar Kung Fu 2 15.500 (30th 

Level) 

Neverending Story Completed 

Commando 122,550 (Level %\ 

GunfrtghlMilkieBfir Kid 

Sir Fred 48% 

Supertest Di 1 19,680, D2 95,822 

Marsport92% 

MO VIE. 58% 

Underwurkfe 38% 

Monty On The Hun Completed 

PSST 2,595,550 

FJtte Deadly 

Tett, Horsham, 

Sussex 

The Hobbit Completed 
Saboteur Completed 
Tomahawk Shot down 7 
helicopters and all targets 



Hypersports Swimming 257; 
Shooting 9200; Vault 12.10; 
Archery 7,000; Weights 2iOKj 
Triple Jump 17.20 



DT's Supertest Beat all people in 
lug Of war 

Frank Bruno's Boxing Knocked 
them all out 

Sabre WuH Completed 100% 
l 



a row 

Commando 300,500 Area 10 

Elliot Esterson, Snaresfcwook. 

London 

Frank Bruno's Boxing 

Completed 

Spy Hunter 1.440.3-75 

Hypersports Swimming 25.20; 

Skeet Shoaling 4200. Long 

Horse 9 83; Archery 4200; Triple 

Jump 16 X, Weight Lifting 210 

Football Manager Champions 
and cup 6 times in a row 
Exploding Fist 6th Dan 
Commando 117.400 
Matcbday Final won 14-0 
0am busters Oam destroyed 
Highway Encounter Zone 1 
Saboteur Completed 
Harrier Attack Completed 
35.600 

Grand Nat unit 1st 
Kung Fu Black Belt Level 7 
Pole Position Completed 1st 
Michael Ramsay, Angus. 

Scotland 

100 CRASH June 1986 





Bruce Lee Completed 5 ... 
without gening killed once 
Hunchback 1 Completed 
Booty 25 times 
Critical Mass 25,642 
Stop the Express Once only 
Beachead 1 and 2 Completed 
Saboteur Got away on 
helicopter 

Exploding Rst 7th Dan 
Pyjamarama97 t 'u 
Manic Miner Completed 
Moon Crest a 30,786 
Harrier Attack 28.233 
Fall Guy Level 6 

Warren 

Yabba Dabba D<K> Compk' 
With 7 lives 

A tic Atac Completed 
Mikie 62,750 

Kokatoni Wirf Completed 
Rocky Horror Show Completed 
Herbert's Dummy Bun 91 Jelly 
Bathes 

Robin O" The Wood 2 weapons 
Sarah Kaye and Katie Anderson, 
Loughborough 



Commando 272.300 Level 13 

Roller Coaster 9.500 

Vie Ar Kung Fu 397,300 Level 53 

Frank Bruno's Boxing Frenchie 

Glass 63.700 

Bruce Lee 1 .500,000 then got 

bored 

Hobbit Completed 

Starquake 5 pieces 

Highway Encounter Completed 

27,850 

Gun fright The Sundance Kid 

Way of the Exploding Fist 

Retired because there was no 

bull at 100.000 

Spy Hunter 585.355 

Aaron Murphy, Hudd^rsfield, 

West Yorkshire 

Bomb Jack 402 .800 

Everyone's A Wally Completed 

£2,580 

Herbert's Dummy Run 

Completed 

Exploding Fist 10th Dan 

Commando Area 10 : over 1 

million scored 

Bruce Lee Completed 18 times 

Saboteur Completed 

Weil Fenwick. Fellham, 

Middlesex 




Highway Encounter 58,380 on 

3rd Highway, Zone 1 

Sabre Wulf Cor n pleted w i th 

211.480; 100% 

Atie Atee Completed with 

289.695; 99% 

Starquake Completed with 

364.400; 86% 

COS Pool 2.370. Frame 7 

Tapper 229.775. reached space 

bar on 2nd round 

Impossible Mission Completed 

with 15,097 points in time 

4.46 43. 

Sum I flanmal. Leicester 



f*"<* 



Exploding Fist 10th Dan 12 limes 
Monty Mote Completed 

F*yjamarama Completed 93% 
sAWaHy90% 

ipieted 

J sDummyRun99% 

i pleted 
3 Weeks in Paradise 100% 
Completed 

Elite El.te 90,994,543 credits 
Travels with Trashman 13,422 
been to all locations 
Tau-Ceti Completed 
Spellbound Completed 89% 
Tranz Am 10 Cups 
Jetpac 12,990,800 
Cookie Made cake 6 times 
Ant Attack 9 W omen 
Zoom 149.000 

Knight Lore Completed 95% 
Skytox Completed afl levels 
AreOfYesed73% 
Howard Gyton. Ely. 

Cambridgeshire 

Commando 1,295.210 {Area 161 
when we got to a million, the 
scores went back to nought 
Bomb Jack 1 40,960 <we played 
on all the platforms, all that 
happened was that they change 
the place) 

Starquake Com pleted 59% 
Dynamite Den Completed 
On The Run Completed 
Gyroscope Bonus 440: Overall 
1 Wi 



Hypersports Swimming 25.44; 
oling 9100: Horse 9.99. 
iery 3,400; Triple Jump 
1; Weight Lifting 180 Kg; 



board) 

Rooky HorTor Show Needed 2 
pieces 

Airwolf 1 Scientist 
Deathchase 3 f j 082 

Mon ty On The Run 4500 Needed 

other object* 

Wizard's Lett 2 pieces of Golden 

Lion 

Pong Man Kwofc and Cheng Po 

Yuk, Levensbulme, Manchester 



■ E>*JT^lfim>Ii1 



Grand National 1st 

Rooco3rdBoKet 

Hypersports Swimming 25 03, 

Skeet Shooting 8,900; Long 

Horse 9.99; Archery 3,7 1 0; 

Triple Jump 18.46 Weight 

Lifting — lightweight 

Bruce Lee Comp leted 6 t imes 

Rocky Horror Show Completed 

Automania Completed 

PYjamarama Completed 

Everyone s A Wally Completed 

Herbert's Dummy Run 

Completed 

Three Weeks in Pared ise 

Completed 

Manic Miner Completed all 

screens 

Jet Set Willy Complei 

mite Dan Completed 
1 Cup Football Fmat wr> 

^ Rogers Lave? 8 
retard Bar 
Ghostbusters 2 men in Zuul 
Spy Hunter 120.316 
^otoniWilf 2nd sheet 

IneerHwnpry 7lh Level 

100,000 

Andrew Ferrari Bracknell, Berk:. 




\i 









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• • • 






TOP 30 FOR JUNE 





26 (21)mK\E Imagine 
7(t2)M.0.VXE.1m*i 
28 f— /ENIGMA FORCE Beyond 




29 f— } LORD OF THE RINGS Melbourne House 

30 (—) LORDS OF MIDNIGHT Beyond 



Auntie Aggie has promised to seal a jiffy bag with a special kiss for Gary Swinbum of .Liverpool, who has 
won the forty pounds of software in this month's Hotline draw. CRASH Hats and T Shirts go to E Deane of 
Ross on Wye; S Burgess of Ayrshire; Andrew Matthews who shares London with the ever expanding Mr 
Liddon, and finally Jason Hartley of Middlesex. (Seems to win a lot of things, does Jason, or is this 
Minion just imagining things?) 







CRASH HOTLINE AND ADVENTURE CHART is Britain's 
most important popularity chart — for Spectrum Software, 
at least. The chart depends entirely on your support and we 
need your votes in order to produce the analysis of who's 
playing what 
Nowadays, there's only ONE WAY to submit your votes — 
that's by post, Towards the beck of the magazine. 



lurking very dose to the competition results bit, you'll find a 
couple of coupons that you can use to send ut your votes. If 
you re really uftkeen on cutting up your magazine, you could 
always use a photocopy, or copy out the details on the forms 
onto a ptatn piece of paper. 

Whatever you do, get those voting forms in, Every month 
we drew out s total of ten winning forms after the charts f 



102 CRASH June 1986 



J ADVENTURE TOP 30 CHART 

•j$K\ __—- 1 f ^ L0RD 0F THE R»NGS Melbourne House 

Iy^t ,^ e ci-^iS^ »*£*£* * w^mw SWORDS AND sorcery PS^^^^^^H 






: fc*»s;"io*- 






u* 1 



irf-flSBHT*^ 



The 






to 




astertronic 



\ti 



4) RED MOON Level 9 





11 /74/ FRAN KIE Ocean 

12 gOMPRIAN MOLE Le vel 9/Mozaic 

13 fflSHADOWFIRE Beyond 

14 f/ fl WORM IN PARADISE L evel 9 
JDOOMDARK'S REVENGE Beyc 

16 (10) LORDS OF MIDNIGHT Beyond 

SSIhrt 

18 (18) ROBIN OF SHERWOOD Adventure International 

19 (16) ENIGMA FORCE Beya| 

20 (13) SHERLOCK Melbourne House 



21 ^/TERRORMOLINOS Melbourne House 

22 (15) GREMLINS Adventure International 
VALHAL 

24 ( 9) LORDS OF TIME Level 9 




28 (29) SPIDER MAN Adventure International 

30 {—) HAMPSTEAD Melbourne House 




The usual forty pounds worth of software will soon be squeezing its way through the postbox of Paul 
Young who, unlike the singi ng star of the same name, lives in Suffolk. 

four lucky runners up are: Stephen Barrett who goes to bed early 'cos the sun sets at 2 o'clock in 
Birmingham; Martin Faulkner who avoids the berks in Berkshire; Paul Wakling. a Sussex lad and finally, 
they say all hope must be rewarded, and Trevor Hope from Forest Gate in London 



iyk 



have been compiled, five for each chart, tod prizes 90 
whizzing off to the lucky sender* of those forms. The first 
form out of the sack of Hotline votes, like the first one to 
come out of the Adventure voting box. wins its sender £40 
worth of software of his or her choice. And a CRASH T Shirt, 
of course 




The next four voting slips for each chart, that's eight voters 
mall, win a T Shirt and Cap. Don't miss out on your chance to 
win ell these goodies for the cost of a 1 7p stamp and the time 
it takes to put pen ana your opinions to paper. CRASH 
HOTLINE and CRASH ADVENTURE TRAIL are what we call 
the giant boxes that your votes go into, and they can be 
reached via PO BOK 10, LUDLOW. SHROPSHIRE, SY8 IDA. 



CRASH June 1986 103 



YOU READ THE BOOK-NOW PLAY THE GAME! 



*< 



I 




Based Oil a concept. I>\ 

Sieve Jackson & Ian \A\ Ingstone 
aiM&mtQn b\ Robin Watcrf'tcld 










nsir uiilirii 
lH»lrlliul(U 



Available from >;onr 
local Computer !>loiO 
in May 







Available on Commodore 1*4, 

A ins trad and Spectrum 1SK 
nrsk*1 A '95 Cassette J 



I 



BBC Electron (Te*1 Only) 
Cassette 5P 



1/1 








M 




As | hi* mitfhi of flu." alien Arcadian 
Empire tightens iis hnlrl <m uur 
galax} . I In* leaders cil ihe secret Karlh 
orgaJiLzat ion, SAROS. &11 her-their slender 
resources into one lasi (taring and fi»nlhanl> 
mission to strike at I he heart «f fhelnvadri 
home planet . 

V(Jl" are their last hope. Equipped ivhh a iVirhifttU'ti 
laser sv^ ord, J our mission is to seek out the under- 
ground resistance and piece tojfel her the \ ital eoiie \ rm 
need to rlestroj (he enemy. Itnt time is running nut ami milj 
VOL" stand in 1 1 ■ * ■ way nf the Areadians' complete domination 
of I lie j>ala\\ ! 

i s Ct»lit Limited. I int ni rhrl*ark««j ' 

|I<-im. i^c siii-,-( IliMiiill^h.iui 117 It A 

I. IiiiIh.ii.- !>_' I '■ I I. I. -\ I l7Jd» 



IM rim 






£'+* 




> 



T 



-- 






Postcode 

I enclose £ made payable to 'CRASH' 

Cheques or postal orders only, please 

COMPLETE CRASH OFFER , PO BOX 10, 
~>LpW, SHROPSHIRE SY8 1 DB 



HOMEGROWN SOFTWAR 



Following the review of Richard Welsh's program, FRANK THE FLEA, in the April issue, we 
have received quite a few 'home grown' programs for review. Maybe something is starting 





5KV SEMCH WNMHntn JfT SET SMDDtV an on* 
cAMMt* fte* SPtDf RSOFT— th* outfit nm by Thorn** 
Mbtigkam down Birmingham m/my Jtntt mmmmkod in thm 
offlba in thmm to bm utmpp+d br ■«* tmntpmnon r 
Pound, m/ t m toportt thtjr'n mt*r+ttino . . . 




HONEY flDW M07NMG Iwhntonm o/rwo 
tram Pmul Stock toy, who hman't got • — 



onottor 
tor hit iottw+r* 



Ymthmhmwtun^diTimnmatmKmTYONTHSRWItfpm 
hmdkmdupbr* fmrtkmot th* etmmwie CEhfTtPEDE gm 






Quite a lew people shared our view that 
Frank The Ffea was an interesting, value far 
money game — despite the laci that the 
rarty staled that copies were only 
available direct from Megasoft on payment 
of n 00 plus pott end pecking. Auntie 
Aggie fielded some twenty five orders it 
department Not bad going lor a brand new 
software house i 

Conversations with SIMON GOODWIN 
, in TECH TIPS and with DEREK 
BREWSTER our adventure reviewer set ihe 
old cogs whirring — both Simon and Derek 
quise often receive 'home grown' programs 
in their mailbegs despatched from CRASH 
Towers, and every now and again some 
thing worthy of a closer look pops up. 

Running a small software house when 
you're an your own isn't easy — as the 
interview with Stewart Green of Data 
Design Systems in the May issue revealed. 
There's so much to do: actually writing the 
program isn't the end of the process by any 
means — there's inlays to produce, dupli- 
cation to arrange, sates to make and, 
hopefully, cash to bank I 

DOING IT YOURSELF 

The whole software industry first began 
with Do-ltAI I— Yourself < 
abng from ihe (he Front Room where all ihe 
duplication and packaging went on and 
earry 2X Microfairs were full of folks selling 
their own home-produced wares. 

Some of these people have made their 

money, left the software marketplace and 

gone on to pastures new. Others have 

•iid on, forming proper businesses. 

during staff and getting bigger and belter. 

106 CRASH June 1S86 



Bui. in a way. the market has turned full 
circle now, and it is dominated by large 
commercial concerns who produce expen- 
sive products becked with large advertising 
budgets and professional sales teams, 
dealing with the High Street shops end 
distributors- 

It's not easy to t" selling your own 

software today — and with the advent ol 
large companies who work to commaroai 
margins there's almost certainly quite a few 
decent programs out there that only ever 
get sotd to rnunds. relatives and people in 
the atreti 



GETTING TO MARKET 

We thought it would be a nice idea to give 
wider exposure to some of the up and 
coming software authors who have yet to 

gi-t ,1 gann« published on a fully commf rcial 

basis, and who knows — one day there 
might even be scope for a budget price 
compilation of the best of the little proggies 
that never quite make it to market. 

Derek Brewster gets a lot of Quitted 
programs in his post, and regularly ree< 
letters from readers asking how to go about 
y adventure games, and the design of 
a good adventure game for the Spectrum is 
a regular topic in SIGNPOST. By the time 
you read this, our beloved Doc Martened 
Editor will have zoomed up the motorway to 
persuade Derek to put together a feature on 
designing adventure games and program- 
ming them — either straight from the key- 
board or via Ttm Quiff, Graphic Advamuro 
Creator or another suitable utility. Would be 
adventure writers, look oui for that one I 

On the TECH TIPS front, Simon Goodwin 



reckons the range of 'serious' software m 
the shops is severely limited by commercial 
considerations There's noi much money to 
be made selling specialist material through 
the conventional and he feels that there 
must be tais of utility software out in the 
wide world that is worthy of a larger 
audience He'll he explaining the type of 
'minority interest' utility software that coukf 
be covered in TECH TIPS next issue, so H 
you have a whuao routine that serves t 
useful purpose (other than Centigrade to 
Farenheit or hex to decimal converters and 
so on} Simon would be interested to hear 
from you. 



LISTING FREE ZONE 

Don't panic as you read this! We' re carta inly 
not going to break with tradition and start 
ig listings — but it you have any 
ideas on how we should go about encour 
aging some less major programs out of in* 
woodwork, don't hesitate to gel m touch. 

Next month in HOME GROWN SOFT- 
WARE we'll take a closer look at the pre 
grams we've already received — bui if 
you've written a game or a utility that no- 
one else wants to publish or you are selling 
yourself, why not drop a review copy in the 
post to HOMEGROWN SOFTWARE 
CRASH. PO BOX 10. LUDLOW. SHROP 
SHftE. SYS 1DB and we'll do our best to 
include it in a future look at HOMEGROWN 
SOFTWARE Don't forget, you'll gee 
awful trouble rf you try selling someone's 
efses program without their permission. » 
don't be tempted to send us anything that 
isn't all you r own wo rk I 





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NTLINE 



THE RPG/PBM 
PERSPECTIVE 

As you may have alread y seen, t h is mo nth's Forum conta ins a tetter 
from an rata Robert Gilmour on the matter of RPGs and home 
computen (particularly Sp*ttrums|. Hit claim is that RPGs, apart 
from not using such devices as joysticks, have a crucial social inter 
action aspect and far more complex rules, something thai computer 
games inevitably lack Mr Gilmour has missed the point of the 
argument by a long way, 



Let's deal with The similarity 
between Elite and Traveller first, 
Elite uses a two dimensional 
interstellar mapping system just 
as Traveller does. Its concept of 
only having one major wo rid for 
each system is identical to the 
philosophy expressed all the 
way through Traveller"* rules 
{until Book 6 Scouts, winch con- 
tains a revised and more 
detailed system generation pro- 
cedure}. Both games make use 
of Tech Levels, industrial and 
agricultural trade classifications 
land indeed, the items listings 
bare a marked resemblance). 
World data is similar for both 
systems. The way star ships 
expend fuel is identical in both 
games as is the concept of 
Raving Free Traders as player 
characters — the list goes on. Of 
course there are some differ- 
ences. But to say that they are 
'nothing like' each other is quite 
simply nol true, 

To be fair, Mr Gilmour' s main 
argument is that you cannot 
either fit an RPG onto a home 
computer system Or have any Of 
the best features of RPGs 
because computer gaming is 
primarily a solitary pursuit But 
even so, it has taken D&D i welve 
years to develop into the game 
you sea today Just because you 
cannot fit all the rules for thai 
game into your Spectrum, is it 
fair to dismiss Swords and 
Sorcery as a solo-RFC? The 
combat sequences for S&S are 
far more complex than those in 
Tunnels and Trolls and are mora 
realistic. 

The computer provides an 
excellent medium for solitaire 
role playing as S&S proves so 

108 CRASH June 1986 



well. While the computer RPGs 
are inherently weaker than their 
conventional alternatives in 
direct comparisons. they 
present a viable and satisfying 
experience for those who have 
neither the time, the money,, or 
the players to explore anything 
else. 

And now, onto another sub- 
ject- As you will see from this 
month's Frontline Forum, the 
response to the suggestion that 
Swords Si Sorcery could be 
treated as much as a strategy 
game as anything else has been 
favourable. As a result, I'll be 
looking at such games much 
more closety in the future- How- 
ever, there's another matter that 
I would like you to consider. One 
of the fastest growing areas of 
computer si rategy gs mi n g is the 
P6M phenomenon. Although 
such games do not run on home 
computers (in fact, owning a 
computer isn't required at ell), 
the game* have intriguing plots, 
present incredible challenge to 
the players and have a social 
side to them as well. 

I dent see why a column for 
computer strategy games 
should necessarily stop at those 
available for the Spectrum when 
there ore games available to 
people regardless of which 
actual machine ihey own. 
Obvious ly, Spectrum games 
should constitute the mam part 
of the column and there's no 
point in covering games for 
other machines. Nevertheless, 
PBM gaming is a fascinating 
area4@s those who read John 
Minson's piece last month, will 
have seen) that doesn't receive 
much coverage in the computer 



with Sean Masterson 



7 



press at present. 

Of course, that's just my 
opinion, I would like to hear 
yours. Should coverage of these 
games become part of Front- 
line? And if the answer to that 
question is 'yes', to what kind of 
extent should they be dis- 
cussed? Please let me hear your 
views on this matter as the 
sooner I have an idea of what 
you want, the taster I can go 



about supplying it. 
And finally . . . 



This month 



should have seen the conclusion 
of my look back at some golden 

otdfea However, I've de cide d to 
hold over pan two for a couple 
ol reasons. First of all. lots of 
interesting letters have arrived 
on my desk and secondly, the all 
powerful Graeme Kidd won't 
give me any extra pages. So 
instead, we revisit Desert Rats 
and find that my prayers for n 
1 Z8K strategy game have finally 
been answered — by CCS, no 
less. Read on . . . 



RATS 

Producer: CCS 
Retail Price; £9.95 
Author; RT Smith 



A couple of month's back, CCS's 
Desert Rats was sent in for 
review and although I rated it 
highly, I neglected to allocate it a 
Crash Smash status. The 
reasons for this were actually 
pointed to by Mr RT Smith, ihe 
author, himself. He had had to 
compromise somewhat to fit 
such a complex game into the 
available memory of the Spec 
trum. The result appeared to be 
a flawed work of genius. Then 
two months ago, I speculated on 
what the game might have been 
like if only it had been used for 
the 128K Spectrum and merle a 
general plea for games lhai 
would take advantage of this 
extra memory 

Mow it appears that my cries 
have been heeded An expand- 
ed version of the game has just 
been released by CCS With two 
extra scenarios and some 
improved features to neaten up 
the bundle, I was left with no 
doubt that this was the game I'd 
been wailing for all along, 

The game now begins in the 
period prior to Rommel's arrival 
m North Africa, These were the 
days when the largely unsung 
achievements of Wave) I and 
O'Conner led to the swift demise 
of the massive but ill-trained 
Italian Tenth Army. With hind- 
sight, many historians have 
au est toned the wisdom of 
/inston Churchill in sending 
Wavell on to other theatres of 
operation and breaking up the 
crack force that had developed 
under his command. His sub- 
ordinate, O'Conner came more 
unstuck still, after an over-tired 
staff driver got lost one night 




and led him straight into the 
clutches of a German patrol, 
resulting in a stay in a POW 
camp for the rest of the war . 

This era is covered over (wo 
scenarios. Operation Compass 
and Beda Fomrn. (n Operation 
Compass, the British player has 




K 






to capture Bardifl and Tobruk 
from the Italians in a 45 turn limit 
covering the period from 9th 
December 1 940 to 22n d January 
1941 The objective of the 
Italians is to hold position in 
Egypt and keep the British out of 
Dema. Beda Fomm presents the 
British with the objective of 
capturing Benghazi and devast- 
ating the Italian Tenth Army 
while the Italians themselves 
must attempt to prevent thi s a rid 
control as much territory as 
possible. This scenario is the 
shorter of the two, lasting only 
15 turns from 241 h January to 
7th February 1941. 

The scenarios accurately give 
the player a taste of the Allies' 
better days in the North African 

Campaign, presenting the much 
mom fluid nature of desert war- 
fare that then prevailed. In 
Assert fiats, the pace of battle is 
set to reflect this. How much it 
contrasts with the far mom 
stable days of Montgomery and 
his 'safety in numbers' 
philosophy! In play, this works 
very well and provides the less 
experienced or able player with 
a large scale but simple back- 
drop as an introduction lo the 
game, 

All of the scenarios from the 
first game are present but the 
main campaign game has been 
aftered The Oesert War previ- 
ously covered the period from 
Rommel's first attack in the 
Spring of 1941 to his withdrawal 
in December 1942. It was played 
over 624 turns. In this new 
version of the game, the scen- 
ario begins with the first British 
offensive in December 1940 and 
is now played over 736 turns. 

There are several other modi- 
fications to the rules and 
presentation. The first that 
becomes noticable is a joystick 
option for those with Kempston. 
Protek or Sinclair interface 
owners. The obvious ease that 
iinb brings to tha movifntm of 
units across the screen, greatly 



enhances payability. There is 
also a demonstration mode 
available from the main menu, 
which is entered by holding 
down the key when selecting 
the number of players. The 
demo mode may be left by hold- 
ing down Die M key at the end of 
alum. 

Mass mobilisations are made 
somewhat more difficult to 
organise with the stacking rules 
now only allowing ten points per 
square as opposed to thirteen in 
the earlier version of the game. 
However, logistical problems 
should be less severe with the 
Supply range now increased 
from seven to tan squares and 
from five to seven squares diag- 
onally. Lybian and Blackshirt 
units are treated as brigades m 
the game (despite the Tact that 
they are organised as divisions I 
because they are disproportion- 
el ly weak and need to be sup- 
plied from an HO unit 

For those who were looking 
for a more competent computer 
opponent, this game doesn't 
come up with the goods. How- 
ever, it offers SO much in terms 
of variety of play and improved 
presentation and structuring 
that it has to be seen as a mile- 
stone in Spectrum war gaming. 
If more software houses follow 
the lead so clearly set by CCS. 
those people who are consider- 
ing buying the Spectrum 129 
will find themselves spoiled for 
choice when it comes lo chal- 
lenging quality software. 

PRESENTATION 91% 
The best feature is the joystick 
opt ion which speeds u p play 

quite wn^idarabry. The demo 
mode is attractive as well 

RULES 97% 

The same high quality as the 
original — not changed 
Significantly 

PAYABILITY 92% 

With the new scenarios and 



tHm ltif t y forlbm &%o<n#. Au*tt*ti*n unitw t*km up position* 
wouthofGmimtm. 




D DIUIDE 
ENTER TO END 



options, a beginner should find 
mis game easily approachable 

GRAPHICS 70% 

Though these have not been 
modified and, in my opinion, are 
st il I poor compared to the rest of 
the game, I think this is a more 
accurate rating 

AUTHENTICITY 91% 

The campaign game still 
requires too much of the Allied 
player but modifications to 
order and supply rules are well 
devised 




VALUE FOR MONEY 96% 

Even if you do not have a 
Spectrum 128. the improve- 
ments to the game are most 
welcome and make the product 
worth every penny, especially 
considering the fact that the old 
price has been kept 

OVERALL 95% 
Whilst some of my original 
reservations still apply, this 
game has been so wel I executed 
and provides players with so 
much, to give it anything leas 
than this would be a crime 




NTLINE 



i 




FORUM 

There's very little space this month, so let's get 
straight to the business at hand, which starts off 
with . . , 



PUTTING UP A 
FIGHT? ^ 



Dear Sean 

One thing I have missed in your 
otherwise informative reviews 
is discussion of the quality of 
computer opponents, Surely 
this is what matters most in a 
good game. The interest of 
y i d phics . m u 11 iple see na r ios etc. 
soon wears off . 

Your reader C Francombe 
(April 86) is surely right to 
complain that usually computer 
opponents are just too easy to 
beat. Designers are not going to 
bolhertodo better if their 
opponent' <s not analysed. 

I have played CCS's Arnhem 
and Desert fta ts a nd Loth lo r i en ' s 
Waterloo and Austertiti , There is 
obviously an enormous 
difference in the computer 
opponents. In the CCS games 
the computer's play is either 
reasonable but predictable 
(Arnhem) or unpredictable but 
inept (To be fair, these games 
look as if they were designed as 



two player games with a 
computer opponent added 
later). The Loth lor ten games 
have an opponent that requires 
a lot of careful thought to out- 
manoeuvre (especially 
Austeri/l? wh\ch is superior 
because both sides have greater 
variety of play). They are a 
challenge — ie they give a good 
game and who ihen gives a 
damn about a few historical 
omissions! 

Obviously they are far from 
ideal, but at least the 
programmer set himself a 
difficult problem — co- 
ordinated land movement over 
a broad I err am — and solved it 
tolerably well. Let's have 
reviews that tell us bow 
intelligent the opponent is 1 
AM Wright, Halifax 



A good argument. As of next 
/ss ue. Hi include an OPPQNEN J 
rating in all the ravtews. That 
way readers wttl have more over 
whtch to disagree wtth me. 

m 

CRASH June 1986 109 




Dear Sean, 

Late last year I began to hear 
rumours of a fabled war-game 
called Their Finest Hour, 
Anticipation grew as computer 
magazines began (o extol every 
aspect of th is game. Per h aps 
this is what I'd been waiting for, 
a real lime war game, creating 
an atmospheric feeling, the fog 
of war, qualitative superiority — 
an historically accurate game 
and the effects of fatigue and 
morale also taking effect along 
with a ruthless opponent. The 
only draw-back, I felt, would be 
the fact it was icon-driven, 
remembering back to how Vd 
struggled with Shedowfire at 
the beginning. 

Well, eventually I bought it 
and hurried home to have my 
finest hour. Unfortunately t was 
disappointed, I found the 
icon-driven format excel lent and 
believe that future war-games 
should use these methods of 
command- However, There.' was 
virtually no atmosphere, I felt I 
was playing a computer, rather 
than fighting a war-game, a& for 
being historically accurate I 
found it grossly inaccurate. 
According to this game Frei- 
Jagd groups of ME 109s have 
free sway over all of southern 
England hitting targets like 
Deoden and Bristol: both were 
beyond the ME 1 0S's range. 
During the same game, a 
formation of 21 Spitfires 
intercepted an unescorted 
formation of 96 HE1 1 1 's. Great I 
thought, I may be able to shoot 
enough down to dissuade them 
from attacking. Inputting an 
aggression factor of 6 produced 
a German loss of 96 bombers?. 
Now come on chaps the Spitfire 
was good but not that good' I 
also intercepted a formation of 
unescorted Slukas by 30 
Hurricanes this will be a virtual 
slaughter but alas. no. I lost 6 
Hurricanes with no loss to the 
enemy. 

Reed ing t he docu mentation 
provided with the game, I came 
to the conclusion that Mr 
Nicholas Palmer (the game 
designer) knows very tittle about 
aircraft of the 1940 period He 
describes the HE1 1 1 and JUBB 
being the heaviest bombers but 
the sTowest. true on the first 
count but wrong on the second 
The superb JU88 was the fastest 
bomber available to the 
Luftwaffe tn 1940 He then 
describes the 0017 as one of the 
quickest — sorry but he's wrong 
here too. the D017 with a full 
bomb load and its armour 
protect ion was only a little faster 
than the HE it 1 , the slowest a \ 
the German bombers. He then 
goes onto describe the JU87 
Stuka as the fastest, Come on I 
This infamous, ugly, grotesque 
looking aeroplane could rarely 
get a bo ve 1 50 rn ph wit h n s 
bomb-load. Surely this is 
obvious- 

He seems to have led you by 

110 CRASH June 1986 



the nose too, which surprised 
me, he described the small part 
played by Beau forts and 
Dehants which you mentioned 
in your review, Beauforts? 
BEAUFORTS I?. Beauforts were 
torpedo bombers which played 
no part m the battle of Britain he 
must mean Blenheims, mustn't 
he? 

Also, and importantly, the 
damage inflicted on radar 
stations by the Germans is really 
OTT. Throughout the whole 
battle, the Germans only 
managed to incapacitate one 
radar station. Vent nor on 
August 1 2 for a considerable 
period Other attacks carried out 
that day by ERPRGR 210 against 
radar stations in Kent and 
Sussex were repaired by the 
next day. Even the Germans 
confess that such targets were 
difficult to hit. But in this game 
(hey seem to have a field day, 
One or two bugs are present in 
the program resulting in 
Lock-ups and Crashes and some 
quite comical results, like theO 
Dormers returning from a raid 
on Middle Wallop after being 
slaughtered by the fighters 
based there 

The Germans seem to follow 
no plan of attack, attacking 
targets randomly, Despite all 
these faults I found the game 
very enjoyable, but I must say 
it's not cracked up to what it is 
supposed to be. 

I've never found a war game 
yet where the computer made 
an intelligent move. In reality an 
aggressive, ruthless enemy 
would exploit your mistakes, 
instead they plod along 
relentlessly to a prearranged 
goal. Does anyone know of any 

Kmes that actually do this? 
lybe I'm playing ihe wrong 
ones? Maybe I should write my 
own? 

Mark Pollock, Middlesbrough. 
Cleveland 

PS I've never managed to fight 
more than one day on Their 
Finest Hour in the campaign 
game. I've either been 
slaughtered or I've slaughtered 
them in one day. 

/ was aware that mykno wledge 
of thai era was rusty but unlit 
your tetter arrived, f wasn 't 
aware how rusty f You're right, 
of course, in thinking the 
reference to Beauforts shoufd 
have said Blenheims, t'm glad 
your enjo yment of the game 
wasn 'I Spoiled too much by the 
flaws. However, plenty of other 
people have still found the game 
more of a challenge than 
yourself. Anyway, in future, I'm 
going to take more time in 
ensuring thai at teastlget the 
facts right . . For your trouble, 
t'm giving you twenty pounds 
worth of software* Please get in 
touch and let me know what you 
would tike. 
SM 



SWORDS AND SORCERY TiPS 



Deal Sean. 

At first, I found S&Svery difficult 
to play, what with my unfamil- 
iarrty with the selection 
procedure, and all the rules I had 
to observe. After a few goes, or 
lives, I managed to get the hang 
of it and now play it regularly 
with my ongoing character 
Thomas Covenant'. Sounds 
familiar? My biggest niggle with 
it is the routine at the start for 
inputting the character's name 
— since it doesn't print up what 
you type in until ENTER is 
pressed, landed up with 
TTTTOO OTTTOO HHOM' on my 
fi rst go. I a Eso pi a y AO&D 
regularly, and I think S&S 
compares very well— il 
eliminates the need for other 
people and can be played 
whenever I feel like it. I'm 
beginning to identify with my 
S&S character now, so this 
makes it more D&D-esqta- 

A few tips.: By now, most 
players of S&S must know what 
effect practising with each of the 
masters gives so I'll leave that 
out- 1 think these ere the correct 
prices for goods in the armoury: 
Sword 20 Dragon's Teeth: Spear 
9DT; Staff 14 DT: Shield TG DT: 
Armour 30 DT: Helmet 7 DT 
Gold 20DT: WineSDT: Pie 8 DT, 
Note (i) pie is essentia I. (nl You 
can select any item as a last 
choice if you can't afford it. 

The magic numbers Tve 
looked at after each action, and J 
believe the is their meaning (in 
order as they appear on screen), 
Defence (ie armour). Fighting 
Skill, Skill as a Thief, Magic 
Power, Max. Unarmed Combat 
Ability, Physical Strength, 
Weapon Damage Bonus, Code 
of a Special Defence, Max Hit 
Points, Jumping Ability. 

I've also noticed : (a) For every 
3 monsters killed, 1 pi is added 
to fighting or magic skill 
depending on which menu was 
used prior to the monster's 
death, (b) Disarming a trap 
successfully improves thief 
abilities |c| But smashing a chest 
decreases them, but can 
improve strength. (d| Jump skill 
can be improved by practising 
JUMPING but this makes you 
hungry, as does (e) RUNNING. 

Always try to talk to monsters 
Try not to start battles as this 
makes them more hostile. 
Thanks for your time. 
Craig Lemon, Braintree, Esse* 



AND MOANS 

Dear Sir, 

I've had the game since early 
December and it is rarely off my 
Speccy, Since you ask, no. I've 
not completed It yet. I've gone 
into every room in the four 
quadrants except the last. I have 
collected the four fish, three 
keys, two sabsuoos but no book 
of Zoo {assumj ng it is on this 
level). All this gear has dona me 



no good at all and I'm runni ng 
out of ideas, 

This brings me to my main 
complaint on (his game. After 
having it for only a week or so, I 
ordered the Advanced Players 
Guide and Level Two pack, 
seeing that they were advertised 
for release at the end of 
December, Yet here we are in 
April and still no sign of them. 
Ever since the end Of January I 
have rung PSS every two weeks 
and every two weeks they say it 
will be ready in 10 to 14 days. 
Whilst I realise delays do 
happen, why is it always two 
weeks? I have even spoken to 
the programmer who did say 
that most of the de lay was due to 
him finding a way to enlarge 
Level Two to 10 quadrants and 
so the second section will be 
much bigger than the f i rst , But 
really what I need is the guide as 
this may provide some help for 
me. 

A sma II poi m that does 
concern me in Level 1 is that 
there are three bottles, which 
when drunk out of cause the 
program to Crash. Is this making 
the completion of the game 
harder for me? As you 
mentioned in your introduction 
last month, I do believe that a 
game like Swords and Sorcery 
does belong on the strategy 
section, as wou Id any RPG They 
are quite separate from 
Adventures. Some of your 
competing magazines do agree 
with us and do divide their 
articles I ike this. At this point let 
me ask if anyone knows why 
more RPG seem to be available 
on the Commodore computer, 
than the Spectrum? 
John Dent, London 

PSS have run into unforseen 
problems all the way along with 
their development of Swards fit 
Sorcery end I'm afraid you are 
likely to be one of many caught 
out by the delay with associated 
products, (fit's any consolation, 
from what I've heard about the 
new products, they should be 
worth wailing for If you realty 
are fed up with wailing, lean 
only suggest you contact PSS 
again and try and reach an 
alternative solution. 

The reasons why more BPGs 
are available for the 
Commodore are threefofd. Both 
the Commodore ftsetfand rote 
playing games are American 
| phenomena resulting in a bigger 
market for this type of product 
Then there's the advantage of 
Commodore having a standard 
disk drive. They may be slow but 
they do allow more memory to 
be accessed — something which 
tote piaymg games especially 
benefit from. Hopefully, PSS wilt 
rectify the situation by making 
S&S modular, thereby negating 
the immediate need for massive 
storage facilities, 
SM 



And that's it for this month. Next month, mora on S&S, some niwt 
on homegrown stuff and of tours*. Anything »lte you c**v to 
write tome about The hallowed address is FRONTLINE FORUM. PO 
BOX 10, LUDLOW, SHROPSHIRE, SVB 1DB 



DO YOU PROVIDE 



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Please type or pnm CRASH June 1986 111 




Retailer* don't alw ay* have everything In rtoch 
yOMIWhjfll want, but If It * wtthfn OUT power to get 
rt for you. then w* wf II. ANY of the wftwarw 
red In thli Oft AWr Inu* of CRASH cm be 

Ordered PW UmTM' the form DelO^Af 



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But to ivold dli appoi ntme nt , plei 
rtveck avaltabJf Ity of I 



CRASH Mali Order It backed by the mounM of 

Newrfleld Ltd, pubi liner* of tre* magat-lne. HAP I 

44 and AMTTX, which run been lupolylng more 

than 1 50,000 computer u**rt with wfiwer* tot 

ever iyrmrt, to you can be mre of the very b«n In 

Mtvtoa. 

There H no mail order catalogue Involved, fuel 
the price* QVPtrd in th« ravfiwi In CHASM or I 
know ratal I price , Should mi he<re any quartet on 
prices. Just ting the n um ber ihywi on t h* hum 
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DISCOUNTS GALOAC1 

Anyone may tah* advantage ****** dbcoum 
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Additionally , CRASH Subicrlberi arm 

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<V krewn rrtal pnci-i ami meM» V* T CRASH 
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Yellow Submarine 



ON THE SCREEN i$ a brand new 
section in CRASH, sponsored by 
Rainbird. the publishers of The 
Art Studio, which is without 
doubt an excellent utility. (And 
we're not just saying that bec- 
ause Rainbird are coughing up a 
few quid in sponsorship money 

— if you don't believe us. read 
Franco Fray's review in lbs 
Christmas Special TECH NICHE) 

This page is intended as a 
showcase for all you talented 
chaps and chapesses out there 
who are busy doing artistic 
th ings on you r Spectrum Screen 

— every so often we'll print a 
selection of pretty pictures thet 
have been sent in as SCREEN 
strings. The reward? Well fame, 
for a stan:, Marti Jones of 
Northampton is going to be fa- 
mous from here on in, as his 
pictures are kicking off the new 
page. Mark's pst about to leave 
school and is looking for a job as. 
a screen designer , . . interested 
software houses give us a ring, 
and we'll pass on Mark's details. 
Fortune might also come your 
way too, you never know . . . 

But whatever happens, you'll 



get a souvenir if one of your 
artistic submissions appears in 
this new section of CRASH, be- 
cause Rainbird will arrange for 
Dimension Graphics to do an A3 
full colour screen dump of you 
picciels}. Then the screen 
dumps will be mounted in a 
lovely frame before they are 
sent back to you to hang on you r 
wall and impress friends ttrtl 
Nice, Huh' 

First of all, we'd better say a big 
THANK YOU to Dominic Handy 
for turning Oil Fray's logo for 
this page, into a real Spectrum 
Screen Thank You Dominic I 

Now on lo the star of the very 
first ON THE SCREEN Mark 
Jones sent us a tape with no less 
than eleven Spectrum pictures 
nestling upon it, and everyone 
was impressed With the range of 
his talents when the demo pro- 
gram was toaded up, 

We had a riffle through, and 
came up with a couple of our 
favourites for the inaugural 
(LMLWDION THE SCREEN page 
from fan's portfolio.. . 




Om;e ogam, Mar* 
shows hts skill as & 
copyist, b#rrowmg 
Strong wet dear 
images from other 
media — this time 
straying awtty from 
the microchip in its 
many manifestations 
and entering the 
worid of animated 
films m search of 
subject m*tenai. 
A composite of 
images from the ftim, 
thejotfy Yellow 
Submarine of the title 
rs placed tirmfy in the 
centre of a group of 
h/ur meanies. whKh 
hem it in, preventing 
escape from the 
■ wen 



Sabre Man 



Mete mthe way eta 
pocketboo* sketch, 
this Spectrum screen 
cpu fa find a plate in 
the tmtd notes of an 
anthropologist or 
botanist Once again, 
th* character which 
lends its name to the 
whole composition is 
placed hrmtym the 
centre at the image 
area, but rt it the frog 
that toots happy, not 
thehuman 

A little extraneous 
vegetafon hnds 
balance to the 
composition, which *jf 
eleady an exempt* of 
Marts Green for 
Jungle) period 



The Balloon 



Tastefully produced in 
senpfmtic black end 
white, this picture 
reveals a street scene 
full ofbrdden menace, 
Sneaking up behind 
the centre! character 
>f a deodedty evil 
being, rendered 
entrtery m black, hirlt 
humanoid. baft 
Serpent The very 
personification of 
rti>bi/eev.-; 




Ghosts and 
Goblins 



Inspired by the arced* 
machine wh<h ts now 
the subject of a 
Spectrum conversion 
by £ttte Systems, tha 
mterprerauonofa 
demon prancing in a 
moonlit graveyard 
needs little by the way 
ofcitp/itnetiori A very 
neatpastKheottha 
gktriooa graphics 
available on the 
original arcade 
machine, toned down 
and umpftf*d forth* 
Spectrum, but taking 
full advantage of the 
smaller machine's 
limited capabilities, 
nevertheless.. 




So there you go. Tha first four 
pictures appear in the ON THE 
SCREEN Gallery, and will soon 
be hanging on the arhst's walls, 
courtesy of Rainbird If you ttu nk 
your Screen Artwork deserves a 
wider audience, don'f hesitate to 
send a tape m to CRASH GALL- 
ERY, CRASH TOWERS. PO BOX 
10, LUDLOW, SHROPSHIRE, 
SV8 IDS Don't be shy, fame and 
fortune could be yours, and at 
the very least there's a good 
chance of winning an A3 framed 
screerwfump 

CRASH June 1986 113 



K*:*!v 



»%%%« 




v.v 



■V.W. 



An icon-driven multi-screen strategic simulation of what 
it's like to take on the most difficult task of all 



You may have saved the world from invading aliens many 
times over- but are you good enough to protect one small 
town from the criminal element within* 

You have at your command wound SOO officers, 
100 vehicles and a host of other units, Ail that goes to make 
up four city police stations in fact. All you have to do is 
keep the crime rale down . . . and the people happy. 






} 

I 



34 




ifwpn 



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/WNDipG/IMES 

Available fo* the 

48K and CBM64 



Argus Press Software Ltd., Liberty Houj 
222 Regent Street, London W1R 7DB 

Telephone: 01*4390666 



¥ 



Producer: Probe 
Software 
Retail price: £7.95 
Author: Syrox Ltd 



Well aren't you the blood- 
thirsty tittle mercenary? 
After years of capping, 
splattmg, maiming and killing 
persons as a hitman operating 
illegally, you've finally been 
given the licence to go legal as 
the State has recognised your 
'talents' and awarded you 
Bounty Hunter status. 

Being in another class to tha 
majority of inept kill merchants 
employed by the State, you 
decide to go straight 10 the top 
and search out four extremely 
notorious thugs hiding on pla- 
net Zybor. Xtro II, Ariel Head, 
Mai Porta and Yokohama are a 
quartet of particularly vicious 
people who would soon as kill a 
man as look at him. Their red- 
eeming feature, from your point 
of view, is tha 100,000 credit 
bounty placed upon their ugly 
heads. 

The official bounty hunters 
kill kit includes a Mantronix: a 
relatively nasty cyborg that is 
controlled remotely by its super- 
visor. The main advantage over 
sending in a Mantronix as Op- 
posed to a real man is thai if a 
energy blast hits it, the Man 
tronix won't be splurged into a 
finish mesh of brood and string 
bits over the surrounding 
square kilometre. A Mantronix 
hit by an energy burst merely 



one of his nine supplied 



Remaining safety in your craft, 
pieced in geostationary orbit far 
above the madding crowd, you 
can coolly and cruelly guide the 
remote controlled robot to the 
lair of the four desperados lutk- 
ingon Zybor, 

The view screen shows an Ult- 
imatesque 3D view of Mant ronix 
and his surroundings in glorious 
monochrome. Four-directional 
control is supplied, and a fire 
button activates a laser cannon. 
Mantronix moves around diag- 
onally, and if the robot goes of 
screen another flips promptly 
into view. There are a thousand 
or so of these screens and 
Zybor s landscape is a bit bleak 
— nothing much survives on the 
surface of this planet. The laser 
comes in handy for despatching 
the mindless baddies that con- 
stantly hassle Mantronix as he 
plods around under your com- 
mand. If a Zybohan nasty should 
happen to bump into Mr M, he 
loses a shield. 

There are numerous bits of 
equipment hanging around 
Zybor's rather desolate land and 
picking up a certain item by 
wandering over it gives Man- 
tronix tha power to destroy a 
pulsator, the criminal team's life 
source. Also worth collecting 
are power cubes: with all eight 
in the possession of your robot, 
the conveyor belts that limit 
MantroniK's area of movement 
reverse in direction. 

All the conveyor bells are to- 
tally invisible and are only det- 
ected when Mantronix puts his 




TWo hownnp ™#it 1*1 c'oi • in on your Mantrom* rmmot* 
control cyborg * i H 1 rump* m round looking for ttim rwjrt 
urch-vittam on th* Sitt So fmr, thw crvdif rwmtmr rmgftmra 
nmmmgx of imro 




A Ifwirodnasfy cmsts* mrn+cnyg thadorv ai rt ippriucbu 
hmmdfov*t Thing* *rm beginning to few-fc up— a few ctwdit* 
MWm lRth*bmtik rtomrthmtm p<rtv»r cub* has bmmtt cotlrcTmd 



feet onto a sect ion of floor thai is 
moving, and is moved in the 
direction of the belt's travel. 
Invisible barriers also exist on 
the planet surface, so the scenic 
route is often needed to get 
somewhere specific . . . 

The game is up once all four 
baddies have been despatched, 
though this is not a trivial task, 
considering the vast amount of 
wasteland to be explored. 



CRITICISM 



• " Mantronix Is a sort of Alien 
8, but you can wander around 
practically where you want 
apart from the invisible waits, 
conveyor belt* and other things 
that arethera but not on general 
view. The detail is of the high 
standard that is expected of 
modem day 3D graphics, but I'm 
afraid gemeplsy suffers from a 
tack of objects and other char- 
acters. The »und is ■ very weft 
done two cha nnel si m u let ion on 
the title screen, but during play 
there's only the constant click- 
Ing of metal feel which got on 
my nerves very quickly. I found 
the game, as a whole, was quite 
fun to play but the playabiitty 
could have been improved — 
the bounty hunting became a 
bit laborious after » while 
Mantronix Is fairly well priced at 
£7 95, but the mote expensive 
versions of this type of game are 
probably more addlctiva " 

• "At first sight t was Quite 
impressed with this game, but f 
wasn't taken m by the pretty 
graphics for very long. Pottering 
ground tha playing area is fairly 
simple and finding the various 
items scattered around the place 
hss more to do with tuck than 
skill as you start off from a 
different place every game, for- 
tunately, you are provided with 
lots of lives at the start of the 
game but the nasties are partic- 
ularly vicious, so completing the 
game will take a lot of skill and 
patience. Graphically, there is 



nothing new hers, although the 
graphics are quite pretty and 
very weft detailed, I liked the 
sound: there are two tunes one 
on the title screen and one on 
the 'game over' screen, as well 
as a few spot effects. Generally,, I 
found Mantronix a little shallow 
— there isn 't really enough go- 
ing on to keep me playing for 
more than a few goes at a time. " 

• " As 3D games go, Mantronix 
isn't that bad and compares well 
against the glut of such releases 
currently swamping the market, 
it's smooth and slick, recreating 
a full three dimensional action 
quite competently, though the 
game itself is a mite bit dull, if 
you're not into arcade advent- 
ures then it's very dull indeed. 
The game idea itself isn't very 
original and basically comes 
down to walking, shooting and 
collecting. Reasonably good 
value for fans of this type of 
game, i suppose. " 



COMMENTS 



Control keys: Q, S, P, L moved in 
the two diagonals, 1/2 pause 
on/off, CAPSHIFT BREAK resets 
game, bottom row to fire 
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, 
Fuller, Interface 2 
Keyboard play: responsive 
Use of colour: monochromatic 
playing ares 

Graphics neat, detailed and 
jolly — playing area a bit empty 
Sound: nice tunes, a few effects 
Skill levels: one 
Screens: 1,000 >sh 
General rating: A competent 
variant on a well tried 3D 
a rcade/adve ntu re to r m at 



Uae of computer 
Graphics 
Payability 
Getting started 

Addictive qualities 
Value for money 



76% 
77% 

71% 
73% 
71% 
74% 
73% 



CRASH June 1986 US 




LEGEND OF THE 

AMAZON WOMEN 



Producer: US 

Gold /Silver! ime 
Retail price: £7.95 
Author: Simon Finch 



Lady Wilde and her infant 
daughter are the only 
Survrwors Of a plane crash. 
Waking up, concussed, in the 
middle of the Amazon jungle. 
Lady W realises thai her da ugh - 
ter has been kidnapped by Ama- 
zons, and she sett out to rescue 
her child 

Driven on by her maternal 
feelings, during her quest Lady 
Wilde has to enter into one-oct- 
one combat with a series of 
Amazon warriors, dodge high 
and low frying arrows and nasty 
spikebaiis hurled out by vicious 
plants, and contend with drag- 
ons. Setting out with little more 
than a leotard and a club, she 
makes her way across a large 
Scrolling landscape split into ten 
zones. Ms Wifde can't move thr- 
ough the landscape unless she 
kills each and every Amazon 
Woman who bars her path — 
and there's no shortage of 
pugnacious tribeswomen . . . 

Vour heroine can walk left and 
right as well as jump and duck, 
and she has three fighting 
moves in her repertoire. The 
Chop delivers a mean overarm 
blow to the bonce of the oppos- 
ing warrior if she is in range, 
while Thrust aims th e weapon to 
the midriff and Slice is a duck- 
ing, hacking move. To begin 



with, the Amazons are armed 
with clubs, but after zone four 
they turn up with swords in 
hand, and me girls in lorves 
eight, nine and ten are axe- 
wielding madwomen. Lady 
Wilde can swop her weapon for 
that of a vanquished opponent, 
but the exchange seems to be 
mainly cosmetic — you don't 
appear to gain extra reach or 
power from different weapons, 

The top third of the screen is 
devoted to a scrolling radar 
system which reveals about 
three screens-worth of the land- 
scape in miniature, below which 
icons representing Lady W, her 
opponents and jungle nasties 
are displayed- The Aggressive 
Aristocrat appears as a chunky 
arrow containing the number of 
lives she has remaining, while 
the AmsjEons appear as slender 
vertical arrows. Spikers — nasty 
plants which hurl energy sapp- 
ing p roiett i les — are also shown 
on the rader, but dragons are 
impervious to the scanner and 
pop up without warning in (he 
last four zones. 

As in fighting Warrior, arrows 
whizz through the playing ares, 
zooming across the screen at 
head height and ankle level. 
Contact wrth an arrow or spiky 
vegetable projectile, like a biff 
from an Amazon's weapon, red- 
uces Lady W"s energy reserves 
displayed on a horizontal bar 
under the radar. Each Amazon 
enters the fray with Jots of 
energy bar wh ich has to be worn 
down before she'll die co-oper- 
I atively. and allow the heroine to 



BOP? Lady Wititm lands m hoariy tiff on th* Amazon Waffiot 
who ix htm k my ht?r p.tth Cimtmn'i certainty got the hang 
of this beat vm up 1 That spiky thing on the tad** to thmlmftof 

Lady W's arrow n a Spike r — m rwtal mman vtigmfatilp 




AahhhtLody Wild* htt mhuffhtd off thn mortal foil, right 
r»«t to a petmithrm tttot. Cimimn wji/uif beginning, to 
tdalita h*r when that arrow finifhad h*f off 




continue on her quest to rescue 
darting daughter 

During a scrap, both comba- 
tants gain a little enemy if they 
rest, but just to make the rescue 
mission that bit more tricky. 
Lady Wilde is up against the 
dock. If she doesn't get to the 
end of a zone within the four 
minute time limit she loses one 
of her four lives. Points are won 
for each blow landed, for killing 
an Amazon, avoiding an arrow 
or spiky projectile, and for killing 
dragons. At the end of a zone a 
bonus of ten times the number 
of seconds remaining on the 
dock is added to the score. 
Killing an Amazon earns a bonus 
of ten limes her intelligence 
level. Intelligence level? The 
inlay states that the Amazon 
warriors have 'floating intelli- 
gence', set according to the leva) 
on which they appear. This 
means the further you get into 
the game, the smarter your 
opponents. 

Should you fight your way 
through all ten levels of the 
game, Lady Wilde is reunited 
with her offspring and a happy 
ending ensues. Are you woman 
enough to enter the jungle? 



CRITICISM 



• " Oh dear! Another fighting 
gams. If it was full of new idea* 
and new moves I wouldn't com- 
plain, but it's a simple variant on 
the theme. The attack inq moves 
are very limited, and really 
aren't good enough when com- 
pared to the sixteen moves 
available in most beat em ups 
The graph ics are quite neat, and 
the women are nicely animated 
but the game teems to lack 
some of the addictive qualities 
that should b« tft*r«. Taking 
everything into account, it's not 
a bad game, but after a white the 
challenge begin* to wane and 
boredom sets in. I think it's ■ bit 
too similar to other righting 
games to be anything special ' 

• "Legend of the Amazon 
Women strikes me as a sort of 
Fighting Warrior, Starring 
women* and not too impressive 
at that. The game has nice 
graphics with a few Spot beeps 
but it's nothing out of the ord- 



inary, t found this game as 
unplayable as Fighting Warrior 
and the game idea is even more 
boring — every woman f came 
to fight was the same as the last. 
Sometimes they had swords, 
sometimes axes, but there stiU 
wasn't enough variety to keep 
me attached to this game — 
even if there was a toad of long- 
haired women running ail over 
my telly. Nothing special, 
overall. ' 

• " While there are a few neat 
touches in this game, including 
the smooth parallax scrolling 
and lime limits to complete each 
level, taken as a whole Legends 
nothing special, Sometimes the 
characters blend into the back- 
ground, making life a bit tricky. 
The way in which the characters 
lope across the screen is strong- 
ly reminiscent of Trr Na Nog, 
while the scrapping sequences 
reminded me of Fighting War 
rior. if you're into beat am ups, 
this is another one for your 
collection, but otherwise it has 
little to offer . " 



COMMENTS 



Control keys: Z back, X 

forwards, M duck, K jump, X Si L 

thrust, M & L Slice, K & L chop, X 

& K jump forwards, M & Z 

change weapon; H pause, S 

start. Q quit 

Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, 

interface 2 

Keyboard ptay: responsive, 

sensible layout 

Uae of colour: mainly 

monochrome 

Graphics: smooth parallax 

scrolling — animation a bit Ttr 

Na rVoogish 

Sound" nice tune plus biffing 

noises 

Skill levels: one 

Screens; ten level scrolling 

landscape 

General rating: Adequate 

fodder for fighting freaks 



Use of computer 
Graphics 
Ptay ability 
Getting started 
Addictrve qualities 
Value for money 



74% 

77% 

71% 

80% 

68% 

68" 

70% 



116 CRASH June 1986 



BOUNCES 



Producer: Beyond 

Retail price: £3.95 
Author: Denton Designs 



your Opponent over the head or 
poking him in the stomach with 
the catcher I 

Status bars monitor both 
□layers' energy levels — coflis 
Tons with thaTiack wall, the ball 



game. I'm not convinced it's 
excellent, but it's quite good, 
and relatively challenging . I 
don't agree with 'Sport of the 
Future' though. I can't see 
masses of footle fans following 
tW* every Saturday in 
20something-or-otrier! There 
are different ways to play, and 
It's easy to build up a personal 
Style, though » can see ft getting 



hit the wall the tegs of the men 
do actually fall from underneath 
I ham as they crumple u p . I f ound 
l he game hard to play at first, but 
once the rules are understood 
you can have a very competitive 
game with your opponent — be 
it the computer or a human 
friend. Souncus is a very strange 
sports game which is most fun 
in the two pfayar mode. Beyond 




Taking a ruttibJ* in th* BOUNCES arena — (he player 00 rft* 
rtifht hn\ full been ymnkod Jigatnsl ihu waft by thm f*ccy hand 

antf coffapMf in a rnupt 



B 



ounces is the super-sport 
of the future, despite the 
fact that it's played by a 
couple of dudes dressed up as a 
viking and a knight-in-armour, 

Eric and Ashley (for it is they} 
compete in a sort of ball-game 
come Sword fight which can be 
played by one or two players on 
the Spectrum. The action takes 
place in an enclosed arena, and 
both players are linked to one 
end of the court by a piece of 
Clastic which continually pulls 
them back. Friction soled shoes 
are their only ally ... An over- 
head pipeway fires a ball into 
play and the aim of the game is 
to shoot the bali into one of the 
goals in the ceiling. The ball 
ricochets off the walls, floors 
and ceiling of the court at great 
speed and is is quite capable of 
bowling a player over 

Players hold a catcher in one 
hand and the ball may be seized 
And retained if it is in reach by 

Enessing the fire button. Raleas- 
ng fire shoots the ball beck into 
play. A players arm may be 
moved to eighl different posit- 
ions, and the ultimate aim is to 
shoot for goal, although if all 
else tails, direct confrontation is 
quite good fun, Try bopping 



or the opponent's catcher result 
in energy loss. Sand trickling 
through an hour glass indicates 
how much time has elapsed 
since play began: the game is 

Slaved in two ninety second 
a Ives and in good sporting 
spirit, you get to change ends 
half way through. 

The players can bend down, 
jump up, stump forwards and 
backwards during a bout. After 
each game finishes a results 
screen appears which keeps a 
running total of Eric and 
Ashley s respective victories 

Points are scored for bopping 
your opponent with the catcher 
or a well-aimed ball as well as 
for popping the ball into one of 
the three ceiling goals al the 
other end of the arena. While a 
player can recover energy by 
taktng a rest on-courl. running 
the energy bar into the red 
results in temporary paralysis 
and a set of three undefended 
goals for the opposition to aim 
for. 



CRITICISM 



•"Bounces is quite a neat 



boring after a while. The ten 
quid price teg Is a bit high, and 
the game could be improved 
upon in quite a few ways 
Nothing stunning, really. " 

#)"/ had a tittto trouble getting 
started as I wasn't supplied with 
any instructions, so I had to 
learn how to play it from scratch. 
I had just about mastered con- 
trol on my fourth go. The graph 
ics are very pretty, and there are 
no attribute problems or graph- 
ics flicker. Sound is fairfy well 
used, although a tune would 
have added to the atmosphere 
of the game. I don't ready see 
this game doing terribly well, as 
it cons too much, For a tenner f 
would expect a few more 
adversaries and the odd change 
of scenery too. " 

•" Bounces is one of the better 
games from the Denton Design 
team, after the apalling Trans- 
formers, end it combines 
smooth animation with some 
well drawn characters. When 
the men move you can see their 
bodies lunge forward trying to 
break the strain of the cord 
which stops them from bashing 
the other man to bits. When they 



have got a game which is very 
playable — iirequireas keen eye 
to judge where the ball wilt 
bounce off to next. Bounces is 9 
good game if you I ike something 
out ofltm ordinary. " 



COMMENTS 



Control keys: 1 up* 2 down, 3 
left, 4 right, 5 fire 
Joystick: Kempston, 
AGF/Protek. Fuller, interface 2 
Keyboard play: a bit tricky 
Use of colour: straightforward 
Graphics: neat 
Sound: spot effects 
Skill levels: two 
Seteens: one 

General rating: An interesting, 
playable game that is a bit on the 
expensive side 



Use of computer 


79% 


Graphics 


80% 


Payability 


79% 


Getting started 


M% 


Addictive qualities 


77% 


Value (or money 


67% 


Overall 


75% 






CRASH June 1986 117 




MUGSY'S REVENGE 



Producer: Melbourne 
House 

Retail price: £7.95 
Author: Beam Software 



After getting thrown into 
the slammer for his orig- 
inal scam, Mugsy is free 
again and in search of a fast 
buck ft'* 1919, America is 
winding itself up for the Depres- 
sion and the most relevant 
change noticeable to Mugsy is 
the introduction of Prohibition. 

Since alcohol is now illegal, a 
large black market has sprung 
up, offering very high prom 
margins. Being an astute 
hoodlum. Mugsy decides that 
this is the racket for hjm. Every- 
thing is set for Mugsy's 
Revenge. 

Those of you familiar with the 
original Mugsy. (which is on the 
B aide of (he cassette ) will realise 
that Mugsy's Revenge follows a 
very similar format. 

Mugsy's aim is to regain con- 
trol of his empire by taking 
advantage of the Prohibition 
situation, and investing the 
fSO,000 that was safely set aside 
before the cops ceughT up wilh 
him Conversations with a right 
hand man supply the infor- 
mation needed, and a list of 
options available is presented 
All the relevant day-to-day 
decisions faced by a gangster 
are put before you: how big a 
bribe should be given to the 
cops? who would you like 



rubbed out? and so on. The 
central decision rests on the 
number of barrels of liquor lo 
buy and sell — shrewd deals at 
the start provide the capital 
needed to buy Speakeasies later 
on in the game. 

If things get rather nasty than 
your fop man scarpers, drop- 
ping you into an arcade sequ- 
ence in i he middle of a gun- 
battle. This section has Mugsy 
running about to the command 
of left, right, up and down keys. 
Fire lets loose hoi lead from the 
revolver supplied, and the idea 
is to eliminate the Feds and 
avoid shooting the ledyfolk who 
parade around. Get hit too many 
times and it's Game Over. 

Information is passed to you 
via a window superimposed 
over one of several detailed 
backgrounds These back- 
grounds change after a few 
chokes have been made, and 
every now and again a small 
animated scene pops into view 
showing a bit of a scuffle at 



Gino's pool ha IT. After the whole 
cycle has been run through, a 
year is deemed to have passed 
and 3 synopsis of your progress 
is presented. 

If too many bad decisions are 
entered or you run out of money 
the game finishes. If, however, 
Mugsy manages fo keep around 
for ten years, then Prohibition is 
lifted and a detailed analysis of 
Mugsy's progress is supplied- 



CRITICISM 



• " Other than the greet 
graphics there's not much to 
Mugsy's Revenge, I think the 
game hi too much of a copy of 
Mugsy, and the gameptay is 
almost the same. One* you 
begin to play it, after a year or so 
has passed in the game, you are 
being asked the same questions 
— It got on my nerves. The 



Shooting it OUT with tfl* f*ds in MUGSY S R&VtMCf 




7h* hsttchttutn l»fs yo*t know that Booty Bfuc*> 1m ttfimrinq a 
hundred dollars » b*ml tor hooch. Wannm tmtt? 



movie clip shows you the year's 
events, and the animation is 
great but there are some jerky 
patches. The arcade game isn't 
that spectacular, and after • few 
people have been kiltad the 
game goes dead slow and is 
almost impossible to ptay " 

•" / was expecting a reef 
advance on Mugsy, But I was 
wrong: it's more of* step back- 
wards. ( wasn't compelled to 
carry on playing after I'd seen a 
few screens and heard the m usic 
once. The arcade screen isn't 
much fun — it's very easy and 
gets very duff once you've been 
through if a few times. There ere 
no sound effects during the 
game although there is an excel- 
lent tune on the pool hall screen, 
f expect that if you stuck wrth n 
for a whifej the game would 
probably become fun, but I 
hadn't got the the patience. " 

•" Mugsy's Revenge could 
have been a good follow up to 
the hit Mugsy but I felt that the 
gama was too repetitive. After a 
while 1 got heartily sick of thr 
snide comments that the person 
running my operations kept 
churning out — over and over I 
heard the same jokes. I gusts 
the screens take up a lot of 
memory, but it would have been 
better if the game had branched 
off more to the strategy side of 
the plot With the great Mugsy 
on side & of the tape, the 
package presents tremendous 
value For money, but really it's a 
case of 'nice graphics, shame 
about the game. 



COMMENTS 



Control keys: ? left, P right, G 

diagonally up. Z diagonally 

down, B, N, M. SPACE fire 

Joystick: Kemps ton 

Keyboard play: fast and 

responsive 

Use of colour: pretty and well 

done 

Graphics: also very nasi 

Sound: one tune, very nice it is 

too 

Skill levels: one 

S cr eens: a good few 

General rating : A rather 

disappointing follow up to a 

great game 



Use of computer 


74% 


Graphics 


79% 


PI ay ability 


68% 


Getting started 
Addictive qualities 


70% 


59% 


Value for money 


75% 


Overall 


67% 



118 CRASH June 1986 







Jt d"^^^^* 




m, 



^m » 




iGonami 



Iff] 



T-mrsnnr 



SPCCTRUM 48K 



SPECTRUM 4 8K 

Imagine Software 1 1 984], 6 C 
Manchester M7 5 NS Tel 061 



COMMODORE 64 



AMSTRAD 



John Manns 



Manchester M7 5 NS Tel 061 i997> 

Imagine Software is available from: 
WOOLWORTH IASHYS Rum be tows Greens Spectrum Shops and all good dealer 





If you can, Superior 
Software has something 
important to say to you. 

Introducing Ourselves 



hree years ago Richard 
Hanson set up Superior 
Software to meet the 
growing demand tor high 
quality games and educational 
programs Now, 66 releases 
further on, Superior has 
established itself as the leading 
software house for BBC and 
Electron computers with top- 
selling releases such as Repton, 
Deathstar, Citadel and SPEECH! 



Exciting Opportunities 

s part of its continuing 
program of expansion, 
Superior is looking for 
top programmers of ALL home 
computers to write original 
software and to produce 
conversions. We are also looking 
for games designers, graphics 
artists and computer musicians 
who would like to be involved in 
some fascinating projects. 



Top Payments 




E 



ur authors are paid on 
a royalty basis, receiving 
80p for every cassette 




SUPCIIIO 

sonuiAur 




sold, calculated and sent out 
promptly every three months 
In certain cases advances are 
also paid. Tim Tyler's Repton 
games have earnt him over 
£30,000 in less than a year — 
qu ite a sum tor a 17 year old, 
and Deathstar author Peter 
Johnson has earnt almost 
E35.000 with us 



Marketing Advantage 

Eu r royalty pay ments 
show that our authors 
have benefitted from 
professional packaging, poinfrof- 
sale material tor retailers, 
carefully placed full-colour 
advertising and effective 
communication with both trade 
and consumer magazines to get 
the maximum coverage. 




E Guidebook 

f you would I ike to be 
part of our continuing 
success, please call 
Richard Hanson in confidence 
on 0532 459457 or 459453. 
Or write to the address below 
for a FREE copy of "Superior 
Software's Top Tips for Games 
Authors". This informative and 
useful booklet is in limited 
supply so send tor your 
copy now. 



Richard Hanion 

Managing Director 

Superior Software Ltd 

Dept.RA6 h Regent House 

SMrrner lone, Leeds L57 1AX 



Limited 




MEREL Y MANGRANMEREL Y 



I retu m to the office a nd my desk 
this month to find That Robin 
(Meat aster) Candy has flown 
tha coop Suddenly the battles 
for office space have ceased 
end, mangely, I find myself 
feeling a tittle lost without tha 
prospect of the odd scuffle for 
lebensraum, Ah walk Life must 
go on, I suppose. Down to 
business 

Things are looking up on the 
adventure front at the moment, 
with The Pfiee ofMagrk virtually 
complete according the The 
Level S teamsters, while CRL are 
on the verge of releasing Tint 
Very Big Cave Adventure from 
the St Bride's schoolgirls as well 
as ihe sequel to Bored of the 
Rings from Delta 4 which goes 
by the name of The Boggit — 
both should be art the shelves 
during May, selling for £7.95. 
Still in adventure mode, we 
should have sight of Incentive's 
Graphic Adventure Creator very 
soon, maybe in time for a close 
look next issue and Ariolasott 
are re-releasing tha excellent 
Valkyrie 17 written by the flam 
Jam Corporation. Finally, Sub- 
sunk fans will be pleased to 
learn that Rrebird (more of them 
anon) have just brought out the 
sequel to the game on the re- 
launched Silver Range. Seabase 
DeKa is in the shops now, 

A massive role-playing adven- 
ture is due to arrive in this 
country from France during The 
middle of Juty — called Mend- 
ragote, it is to sell for £14 95 for 
which you get 260K's worth of 
program on two cassettes, an 
insl ruction booklet and a ten 
chapter book setting the Media- 
eval scene. Four characters are 
involved in the game, and up to 
four players can gather round 
the keyboard pa rtici paling in the 
same session, "Magic, Battles 
and Heroism" are all involved, 
according to the press release, 
which is all i hat's arrived in the 
office at this very early stage of 
play, 

Still gently on ihe adventure 
theme, our very own Derek 
Brewster is about to have his 
(■Joel gam rtawead on the 
M uterti oniQ MAD label. Con 
Quest is an animated 3D arcade 
adventure starring a little fellow 
by the name of Oscar who has 
just bought a castle and found it 
full of demons. The game is icon 
driven, and should receive a full 
review tn the July issue US 
Gold, too, promise to ml ease an 
adventure based on the film 
Return To Oz any day now, in 
which you have to rescue your 
chums from the dutches or the 
evil Gnome King, once again 
without any text input. 

On a more arcady tone, AIM- 
gats are confident that their Pub 
Games collection should be in 
the shops by The end of June, it's 
a sod of did Flatulence Bitter 
Decathlon, in which the player 
can have a go at playing the 
whole series of games through 
sequentially or bpi to practice 
single events. Bar Billiards, 
Darts, Dominos, Poker, Pon- 
toon, Skittles, and Table Foot- 



ball all appear on the tape, and 
the player s performance will be 
affected by a 'Booze F actor* I 

Budding investigative journa- 
lists will soon be able to practise 
their Skills in NEXUS from the 
software house of a very similar 
name to The gome, NEXUS in 
which you are pined against an 
evil ring of drug smugglers. 
Search for your pal who has 
been kidnapped and keep send- 
ing news back to base to make 
sure you get the scoop of the 
century. No firm news on the 
game's arrival yet, however. 

Dentgn Design*, having reg- 
rouped a little bit after some of 
the founder members of ihe 
team decided they preferred 



ical war between the NATO 
Alliance and Warsaw Pact 
countries, should also be avail 
able on the Spectrum by the 
time you read this. Both game* 
are to sell for C9.95 

Football fans intent on follow- 
ing the World Cup this year will 
no doubt want to avail thems- 
elves of US Gold's World Cup 
Cartitv&t package, which includ- 
es a full colour poster for you to 
chart the progress of the com- 
peting countries, stick-on flags, 
and badges as well as a com- 
puter run league table and a 
knockout fooTie competition. 
Out soon, they say. 

On the Budget front, there's 
no sign of any of the new Player* 




TIM pffaf vcrwff snot of w.f .X. VtS< 
NEXUS fft# woftwtnt hou*m. Trtoy 



on Ctn Sp+ctrum, *cconrtns to 

shoukf know, itfttrr all 



being totally freelance, an? 
working on a Prisoner of War 
game under the title of Statag— 
more than that I do not know. 

Another firms with plans for 
your Spectrum carefully laid is 
Domark who should be releas- 
ing a sort of sliding block puzzle 
fjame featuring caricatures of 
amous faces, not unreasonably 
called Spfittmg Images The next 
James Bond game is scheduled 
for a July launch and there's 
already £25,000 in cash sitting m 
a suitcase in the Domark offices. 
Eureka tl is nee ring completion 
and when it appears in August 
the cassette is to include a 
solution to Eureka as well as 
details of how to claim that suit- 
case full of loot for your very 
own. 

Sadly, (was a little misinform- 
ed about Microspheres current 
project. Contest Sam Cruise. I 
sat down last month and Told 
you that the game had been 
scrapped — untrue. It should 
appea r arou nd Aug ust in a much 
bigger and better form than 
originally planned. Sorry! 

The latest news from PSS 
arrives in Ludlow, and we learn 
that an early Juty release is on 
the cards for Tobruk, a classic 
Axis versus the Allies wargame. 
The Commodore hit. Theatre 
Europe, in which the player 
fights through a theoretical 
modern day nuclear and chem- 



games in the office, although 
they were promised by Richard 
Jones of The new label's parent 
company, Interceptor, Mo hum. 
Rupert end the ke Palace is 
coming shortly from Bug Byte, 
priced at £2.99 which should 
keep Rupert fans happy. 
anyway. 

Elite Systems in Walsall just 
missed completing Ghosts and 
Goblms in time for a full review 
this issue, bul with luck we 
should be able to take a close 
look at that one next month, 
along with their other arcade 



Who is still having prob- 
lems with his time machine, hut 
the Tardis should be making a 
landing towards the end of May 
according To the latest update 
from Micro Power. Maybe he'll 
bring The Force with him? 

And with ihose few words it's 
time to sign off this month and 
return to the peace and tranquil- 
lity of my little cottage, away 
from the stresses and strains 
caused by the tension of waiting 
for games promised months 
ago to arrive in The office. 



conversion still underway. Pa- 
perboy. Scooby fans will be 
pleased to learn that Elite have 
signed Gargoyle Games to 
come up with a game that takes 
up the licence option that never 
quite got used , 

Rreoirdwise we have received 
evidence of the relaunched Sil- 
ver flange in the form of Cy/u 
and the old favourite Booty as 
well as the aforementioned Sea- 
base OeHa and Spiky Harold 
which gats the full Treatment 
elsewhere this issue. Snll no 
sign of Empire, and although we 
were promised a copy of Odin's 
Kimera — to be called Heartland 
now thai Firebird have taken 
over marketing for Odin — not 
even an inlay made it to Ludlow. 
Hmm. t.CU.P.S. the Other Odm 
game, rs probably still a long 
way into the Firebird future . . . 

Orpheus have finally complet- 
ed The Young Ones, and rumour 
has it that Tujad is written, too. rt 
■aaitia that Orpheus dorVT feu I 
they can do the game justice 
themselves, however, and it 
looks at if we'll have to wait for 
them to sell the rights to another 
company before we gel to view 
it. 

Boredom is likely to set in 
before we finally gel to see 
Fairiight tl from The Edge, and a 
similar state of catatonia 
ILMLWOI is beginning to set in 
as far as Setters The writer and 
The Artist if are concerned. No 
matter how often Tim Langdell 
is phoned, nothing aver arrives. 
Turn Te Turn. The last Word «$ 
on its way from Saga, so rt looks 
like Softek are going to lose the 
race to get a word processor 
reviewed in these hallowed 



Ju»f thntm of thm rm-rwim* 
thmlr tray ro thm shop* 





BOUNCE AND FLY 
WITH MIRRORSOFT 



MIRRORSOFT have three games scheduled for Spectrum launch during May: Action Reflex 
from Medusa, programmed by Christian Urquhart, and Biggies, the official game of the film 
currently being written by the team at Oalali, a programming house that has previously 
specialised in conversions rather than original games. Last but not least. Dynamite Dan //— 
previewed in the April issue — should be available by the time you read this. 



UNCING 
THE BALL 



Action Reflex is a ball game with 
a difference — you play the part 
of a chequered football which 
has to negotiate a hostile envir 
orwnent set out in the best («-■ 
cade adventure flip-screen 
format. An overhead pipeway, 
which is in fact a vacuum deliv- 
ery system, ru ns along 1 he top of 
most of the screens in the game, 
and play begins as your hall is 
sent down a vertical tube which 
retracts into the ceiling once the 
ball has been deposited at the 
start point. 

B il I the bal I can be rol led along 
the ground to the left or right, 
and the amount of energy you 
impart to the ball governs the 
s pee d at which h rolls, Chevrons 
in the status area light up to 
indicate the amount of force 
currently applied. Understand 
ably, as the star of the game is a 
ball, it can also bounce - press- 



ing up on the keyboard or joy- 
stick initiates a vertical bouncing 
action and the longer the up 
direction is held, the higher ihe 
ball bounces as it builds up 
momentum. Careful timing al- 
lows the ball to bounce (en or 
right if the appropriate direction 
key is hit at it lands on the 
ground - 

The game will contain three, 
or possibly four, twenty five 
screen courses for the ball to 
negotiate, to complete the game 
you will have (a go round the 
courses four times in all. Each 
course has to be completed 
wrthin a time limit — it's burst- 
ville and game over if you run 
out of time — and each time 
around, the game gets harder. 

A range of nasties lurks in the 
underground system: some of 
them are static like pins, mag- 
nets and disintegrator grids, 




An mmrty mcrmm from ACTION ftEFLtX froggy hop* from 
side to ifdt — canted with him poftm t ft* ball and »• nd * yew 
B*C*t te the ttmft of thm mermen thm maynat it activated by 
thm ftoor-pmd und+t it. and it the that I do*m r otcj|» thm 
mgnttiicHMMH qolcHly, • dart is star info it. Hatty 

\22 CRASH June 1986 



while others are mobile like the 
giant green froggy fellow who 
shuffles from side to Side with 
his tongue hanging out. Flames 
burst out of nozzles in the floor, 
boxing gloves bop unsuspect- 
ing bails towards pins on the 
ceiling and nozzles shool darts 
at the Round One 

In the final version of the 
game, points will be scattered 
around the playing area, in 
handy denominations of 200, 
400 and 600. Roll Over them, and 
their value is added to your 
score and a lifebelt, hammer or 
key is collected, respectively, At 
the moment the objects appear 



on screen, rather than the point 
values. Lifebelts are used to 
cross pools of water, one belt 
being used up for each crossing, 
while hammers can break down 
glass barriers in the later levels 
and keys open short -cut tubes 
that lie on the floor which the 
bell can unlock and zoom thr- 
ough in safety 

Christian is slaving away in an 
anonymous bedsit not far from 
Mirrorsott HQ as this is being 
written: the finished game sh- 
ould be in the shops roundabout 
nowish (as you read) priced at 
C7.9S. 



CHOCKS A WA Y! 



Biggies, the game of the film, is 
another major M irrorsofi project 
due to come to fruition during 
the month of May. Following the 
plot of the film, in which Jim 

Ferguson, a modem-day New 
Yorker discovers he is the time 
twin of Biggies, the game puts 
you into Biggies' Hying boots. 
Your mission is to save the 
world from the ravages of a 
deadly new weapon. 

For C9 95. you get a package 
which contains three linked 
games, which have to be played 
through sequentially, before the 
finale— a flight simulator which 
emulates a modem American 
police helicopler. 

Section one of the game plo- 
nks the player in the seat of a 
World War One biplane — and 
it's time to set out on a recon- 
naissance mission, flying over 
enemy lines to photograph the 
secret weapon and its site. 
Understandably, the enemy 
want to keep their secret wea- 
pon secret, and send up their 
own air aces to thwart you while 
pumping ffak into the skies. 
Dogfights ensue. 

Survive the dogfight sequ- 
ences and snap ihe new wea- 
pon, and it's time to play a 
Commando- type gamelet. A 
network of caves and trenches 
has to be negotiated en route to 
the weapon test site, this time on 
foot with little more than a pistol 



and collection of grenades for 
self-defence. The third game 
sequence it sal in the present 
day, in New York. The photo- 
graphs taken in pari One ol the 
game have to be recovered from 
the developers — and despite 
the fact that you're a super hero 
from the past the police and 
SAS are not impressed. A heli- 
copter has been scrambled by 
the police department and arm- 
ed offkers lurk on the rooftops, 
taking pot shots at your flying- 
helmeted form. 

Having snatched the snaps 
from the photography shop and 
stolen the police helicopter. 
Biggies has to fty the strange 
whirlybird back to his Own time, 
across enemy lines and then 
destroy the nasty weapon. For 
maximum points, there are a 
few chums held captive by the 
baddies, who could do with res- 
cuing , . , 

Sadly, the programming team 
at Dalai i were too busy comp- 
leting the game to sort out a few 
taster screen shots to go with 
this preview, but we managed to 
arrange a little fl-off deal for the 
film itself. Scamper off to the 
local cinema with the cartoon 
strip printed here, and you can 
get into the mood for the game. 

Like the adverts say, "Do you 
want to be a Hero?". See the 
film, get Biggfes. the game, 9nii 
you can have a go 1 



I 



TROTTING ROUND TOMBS 




Thm crmpukttH (LMtMOl rmportmr, L*qt*m* O'DonnmU cimi 
trMst/r*^ Atayba. (ikiuh thai h«#dJ*u ho<roriMmi fca*n 

MpntMAt Afar frwn opanmg rh# (mm. ff"« th* Guard/an dfrtw 
romfc. *r*Bttimtnipp*t of a c^r«c(ir lapJaii raa/Jy urtf/b*. 
unlHi h* mow* s/wrpii h 




Following on the heels of Quai- 
atron, their latest release, Hew 
son's are nearly ready to send 
Pyracurse winging its way out to 
(he shop shelves. 

Written by Keith Prosser and 
Mark Goodall. the game takes 
the player back to The 1930's snd 
the action lakes place m a multi 
level tomb in the middle of the 
South American jungle. Famous 
archeology st, Pe rides Pember- 
ton-Smytho has gone m issi ng — 
he sat out to explore the tomb of 
an ancient god and never ret- 
urned. Now his daughter. Dap- 
hne, is on the (fail of her father, 
accompanied by a newspaper 
reporter, Legless O'Donneli, a 
dog and one of her father's 
friends from the British Museum 
— Professor Kile, 

The game is controlled Avaton 
style, using the keyboard or a 
joystick to manipulate a set of 
menus in the status area, press- 
ing fire to make a selection, 
During play, you can swop 
control between the four char- 
acters, and issue commands to 
your colleagues if they are in the 
immediate vicinity. 

Each character has a unique 
personality, with appropriate 
attributes — the reporter, for 
instance, is a stereotyped hard 
drinking hack who's big, brave 
and regularly drunk. Daphne, on 
Hie other hand, is a feminine 

X, who faints quite often 
n she's frightened and is tar 
from being a muscle-bound 
hulk. 

The playing area scrolls smo- 
othy inside a large window on 
the screen, with the character 
you control remaining roughly 
m the centre as the scenery 
moves around him or her. In ihe 
final version of the game the 
window will be a little smaller 
than it is shown here — Keith 



and Mark have enlarged it to 
make playtesting thai bit easier. 
Pyrscurse should contain three 
or four levels — the final deci- 
sion has yet to be taken — and 
there will be around 250 scre- 
ens-worth of Andean environ- 
ment to explore. 

Suitably (omb-Nke nasties lurk 
in the game. Mummies and 
animated statues are more than 
witling to cause a bit of grief to 
the adventurers, and pits and 
traps have been sal in the tomb 
by the artisans who built it. 
Treasure and items vital to 
completing the game success- 
fully have also been hidden 
away end need to be found and 
collected. The characters don't 
have energy levels which are 
depleted by attacking nasties as 
in most other games — they 
either survive or are ripped limb 
from limb, literally! Fortunately, 
the chap who's tomb this is, 
developed an enzyme which he 
used to regenerate his physical 
form, thus attaining immortali- 
ty Sadly, the Spaniards killed off 
all his followers and no-one was 
around to sprinkle the enzyme 
on the ex-god's corpse. So he 
died. The enzyme can be found 
in the tomb by the explorers, 
however, and used to regener- 
ate a ki lied companion . 

Although Daphne is being 
paid by the newspaper, which 
has send Legless to cover the 
story of her search for Daddy, rt 
is important 1 h at she fi nds him. ff 
he's alive, she picks up a lot of 
loot from the paper and will be 
pleased to be reunited with her 
father, If he's dead. Daphne will 
be sad — but at least she'll be 
able to prove that Daddikins is 
no more to the solicitor who is 
holding his estate in trust for 
her, arid she can at last inherit a 
fortune. 




HOCUS «■«) - A MAJO*. NEW FILM COHll-tC SHORTLY TO VOUt LOCAL ABC 



CRASH June 1986 123 




/ 



RESCUING A DAMSEL 
IN DISTRESS . . . 

Elite Systems are on the verge of releasing another arcade conversion, GHOSTS AND 
GOBLINS Gary Liddon bemoans the fact that the finished version didn't quite make it in time 
for a full review... 

Well there he ifl, kneeling in front 

of his intended just about to pop 
the question and what should 
happen but a very big nasty 
demon person appears in a puff 
of smoke. Swooping down qui- 
ckly, the demon digs his talons 
into the fair maid and makes of* 
with her to his palace tar, far 
away. The brave knight, after 
seeing hrs misuse dragged off 
by 9 scary monster with a ser- 
ious complexion problem, is 
very annoyed indeed and dec- 
idea to rescue his fair bnde-to 
be, post haste. 

If you're the Demon King and 
have the ability of flight as well 
as the front door key to the 
castle, then getting to the palace 
is really quite easy, even if 
you're weighed down by eight 
stone of screaming damsel. If 
you're the knight in Elite's con- 
version of the Capcom arcade 
game. Ghosts and Gobftns, 
however, an evil tortuous path 
stretches before you. guarded 
by a fair host of evil nasty men, 
submen, and creatures not even 
remotely manlike but stilt very 
nasty nevertheless, 

The route to the Demon King's 
castle is split into sections, and 
each section has its very own 
bona — fide Devil fervently guar- 
ding the portal to the next sec- 
tion. These cloven hoofed mea- 
nies take a fair old pounding 
before withering up and dying, 
but the merest touch from their 
talons kills a chap dead 

Mr Kmght is a very versatile 
type of person indeed and can 
perform all manner of different 
actions activated via the key- 
board or a humble joystick. Left 
and right are fairly straightfor- 
ward, though the knight himself 
generally doesn't move — the 
landscape behind him scrolls 
by. And how nicely it scrolls too, 
quite an achievement for a poor 
little Spectrum. The scrolling is 
very, very smooth indeed: white 
the game was being played it 
even had the odd passing Com- 
modore owner looking twice. 

Jumps are quite handy for 
leaping the odd encroaching 
nasty, while down causes our 
hero to squat, hunched against 
the ground in missile- avoiding 
mode. The fire button activates 
the weapon currently held by 
the knight. To begin with, the 
knight is equipped with a good 
and trusty sword and the fire 
button sends out a stream of 
swordlets in front of the hero 
whenever it is pressed. Pot 
dragging zombies emerge from 

124 CRASH June 1986 




I 



Your knight rut fust tmkmn * hit mnd iomp*n through th* 
undergrowth in hit undi+x 



the ground in the graveyard, and 
if they are ki lied, a weapon is left 
on the ground. Running over a 
grounded weapon effects an 
exchange. Some of the weapons 
available are very useful indeed, 
while others have a very limited 
range- 
Encased in a suit of armour, 
the knight is not killed by the first 
blow landed by an attacking 
felon, but he loses his tin sun 
and is left to run around in his 
long johns. The second hit from 
a baddie results in death. Still, 
with eight lives in store all is not 
lost — out Ihe knight returns to 
the start of the current level 
rather than continuing from his 
deathbed. 

There are four levels in the 
game — the firs* becjins in a 
graveyard, replete with head- 
stones and zombies which 
emerge from the ground. A little 
further on, death spitting plants 
are encountered before the hero 
has to board a raft to cross a 



stretch of water and reach the 
second half of the first level 
where witches riding broom- 
sticks wait, ready to dive-bomb 
htm. If he gets past the witches 
and defeats the demon guarding 
the doorway to the next level, he 
enters the ice palace, 

The ice palace is a tone of 
platforms and ladders which 
scroll behind the hero in all four 
directions. Scampering up and 
down walkways the lovelorn 
lothario has to avoid or kill the 
nasties before escaping to the 
Gorgon level He Suddenly finds 
himself in a town, where the 
buildings house evil flying gor- 
gons, A window shutter pops 
open suddenly and soom, out 
flies a nasty, Shinning up lad- 
ders and stomping baby dem- 
ons is all part of the fun on this 
level. 

After the last guardian has 
been despatched, the knight can 
enter the cavern system that 
leads to his beloved, held cap- 



tive at the end of the game by the 
Demon King. 
Ghost and Goblins was pro- 

f (rammed by Keith Burkhill, 
reelance bytesmith respons- 
ible, among other things, for 
Commando, Pooo and Misstfa 
Attack. Living in Wales Keith 
really isn't all that far from sunny 
Ludlow So when we accident- 
ally managed to corrupt the 
preview copy of the game sent 
from Elite's HCL Keith agreed to 
bring his latest version along to 
CRASH Towers in person, and 
we snapped away merrify. 
These shots are likely to be very 
close indeed to what the end 
user (you) is going to receive as 
Keith reckoned he'd have the 
whole thing finished within a 
couple of days of his visit, Sadly, 
this was just a tiny bit too lata for 
a full review. . . 

Next month's CRASR should 
contain that full review, but it 
looks like the game will be on the 
shelves before we get to tell you 
all about it. Meanwhile, why not 
turn to pages 38 and 39 of this 
issue, for a little more news 
about Ghosts and Goblins) 



SPECTRUM/CBM 64 
£9.95 





THE DEADLY SPORT OF THE FUTURE 

ONE OR TWO FLAYER 
FURIOUS FIGHTING FANTASY 






SEE *** F0B 







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BOUNCES IS AVAILABLE NOW FROM ALL COOOSOFTW, 
DEALERS* IN CASE OF DtFFtCULTY PLEASE WRITS 7 
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AND THEY CALL THEMSELVES 




ADULTS!!! 



The times they w 
left you at home 
because 'you're not 
grown up' or 'not old 
enough to come to the pub' 
and look what they get up to 
when they get there! Here's your 
chance to find out what it's realty 
like in those smoke filled haunts 
of adulthood. The opportunity to 
see how good you are at these 
ADULT?? games. 
Why let the mums and dads 
have all the fun. Pub Games can 
be a laugh for everyone. 




BAR BILLIARDS ■ DOMINOES 
DARTS TABLE FOOTBALL 
POKER & PONTOON 
BAR SKITTLES 



K 



Commodore 54/128 - Spectrum 4BK 
Avaifabie soon BBC ■ MSX 



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Alligata Software Ltd , 1 Orange Street. 
Sheffield SI 4DW. 
Tel: (0742) 7557% 



• Amstrad \k\ 



GO 



ALUGATA BITES BACK 



ALUGATA BITES BACK 



. 




Producer: Quicksilva 

Retail price: £8.95 
Author: Paul Ha r greaves 



The interstellar war is over 
end the enemy Jaglan 
Group has finally been 
wiped out , . . bar one member, 
who has taken refuge on the 
planet Tantalus The Centuri 
Alliance is eager to dispose of 
this deviant, so a special task 
force is sent to Tantalus to eradi- 
cate him. 

Years ago, human combat 
was abandoned in favour of 
wars between specially created 
mutant soldiers. Mutants were 
developed for domestic and 
men ial jobs, but a certain type of 
mutoid has been genetically 
engineered as the ideal fighting 
being. With sharp reactions and 
■nbred cunning, they are ideally 
suited to tackle the Tantalus 
Problem. 

Four mutoid Spikes under 
your command are on the planet 
Tantalus and it's up to you to 
negotiate a way around the 
booby-trapped defences and 
assassinate the Jag Ian criminal. 
Four against one? Couldn't be 
easier Ho, ho. Tantalus is a veri- 
table rabbit warren of under- 
ground caverns and hidden 
passageways, over a thousand 
locations in all The Jag Ian 
deviant hasn't wasted his time. 

AM those years m self- 
imposed exile have been spent 
setting up defences. Forty-eight 



different sorts of alien form » 
grand welcoming party for you. 
Forty-eight types of alien with 
sixteen different flight patterns, 
each one a different challenge. 
Although the mutant spikes are 
near perfect fighters, they are by 
no means invulnerable. Apart 
from the nasties floating around 
Tantalus, the deviant has 
riggedup some pretty devious 
devices to ensnare intruders: 
lasers fire across gaps; losers 
shoot down from the ceiling, 
roof spikes impale passers-by; 
bubbling vats of acid have to be 
avoided and sinister looking 
grabbers winch down from the 
ceiling and do nasty things. 
There are dissolving walls, 
seemingly innocent doors that 
suddenly destroy you and 
apparently inanimate objects 
that are really rather deadly. 

Before you can even think 
about eliminating the Jag Ian 
deviant, thirty two deadly doors 
must be found end opened with 
the right key 

The mutants don't look much 
like the ultimate fighting cre- 
ation — more (ike Strange 
cuddh/ toys with no hands or 
feet and mohican hairstyles. 
They start off with jet packs and 
can ;oom around the fortress, 
Going through an airlock 
removes the jet pack, and the 
range of movement thereafter is 
limited to left, right, up. down 
and jump. In jet peck mode, 



' < < lull 



Hjtving fUtt fWUMJ Ihtaui] fi jh jirlock Ort Ihm hattam o* fhm 

jc r— n , ttm Spikm Hat tost th* Jef Pack and it nbout to patt 
through m laser curtain 



Spikes can make themselves 
invisible for a few moments — 
very handy when in an awkward 
spot. 

Spikes are provided with an 
elaborate weapon system, They 
have six weapons, each of which 
fires in a unique pattern and can 
only be used for a limited period 
of time before being allowed to 
recharge. Panels on screen 
monitor progress, showing how 
many dooriocks have bean 
opened, the condition of each of 
the six weapons and the number 
of lives remaining. 

This is the first game in a 
1 ri logy from the author o f Gloss - 
more to follow in due course . . . 



CRITICISM 



• " Tantalus didn't appeal to me 
at afl, mainly because I've mm 
SO many gamers like this before, 
ArCOde/adventures aren't new 
and to make any impression on 
me, such a game hot to have 



Sptk * in his Jat Pack t (ipmi tlong rfitvQtty fbon • rm m pm d 
stmrwmy, doing battt* with a pang of atitns 




something different or original 
about it Thts gome hasn't. The 
graphics era nice and colourful 
but not particularly vvell anima- 
ted. The only bet I liked was the 
sin types of weapon available — 
apart from that I got bored 
rather quickly, I'm afraid. " 

• " As shoot am up games go, 
Tantalus is excellent, ft is both 
addictive and very pla yable. The 
use of colour is terrific — the 
whole screen is covered in ft, but 
I couldn't spot any colour clash. 
This game had many nice 
touches, like the different 
weapons. As you blast your way 
though the hundreds of sprites, 
tha graphics and backdrops are 
waff detailed and stand out. 
Eliminating the enemy ts a 
massive task to ember*: on: 
overall, no disappointment In 
tha game, which is vary play- 
able. " 

• " Though not a mega- 
fantastic game, I enjoyed play- 
ing Tantalus for a while. Colour 
rs very nicely used and the 
game, while being very difficult, I 
■8 good fun, I like it more Than I 
did Quicksilva's last release, to 
say the least. Th« playing area is 
a bso lutely mass ive, and! fou nd I 
could wander about for ages 
without having to recross my 
route. The concept of mutant 
punkoids is great, and I want one 
tool! Tantalus is big, colourful, 
fun and very difficult: « like it I " 



COMMENTS 



Control keys: Q thrust/jump, A 

change weapon. left, P right, 

Mfire 

Joystick: Kempston. Interface 2 

Keyboard play; fine 

Use of colour: lots of it — 

perhaps a little garish 

Graphics: densely packed, lots 

of variety 

Sound: raspy spot effects 

Skill levels: one 

S cr ee ns : 1024 

General rating: A large, 

colourful and playable game 



Lisa of computer 


77% 


Graphics 


79% 


Payability 


80% 


1 Gettirto, started 


80% 


Addictive qualities 


76% 


Value for money 


75% 


Overall 


76% 



CRASH June 19BC 127 



'#£££- 






THE SECRET OF 
LEVITATION 



Producer: Americana 

Retail price: £2.99 
Author: Michael 
Beresford 



American* s first Spec- 
trum budget game pre- 
sents, nine little pu»4es to 
lest and train your reactions and 
visual abilities on the path to 
complete mind-over -matter 
control. After each test you are 
shown a screen with a Sidha in 
hw meditative position. The 
higher your score in each indi- 
vidual game, the higher the holy 
one rises on the reward screen 
and the closer you get 10 mast- 
ery of Levitation. So the inlay 
says, at any rale 

The first test evaluates your 
reactions. The screen shows 
four numbered Sid has Pressing 



clock. Only times of forty sec- 
onds of lass lead to respectable 
Scores here. 

Mind-body Mastery is the fifth 
game. Eight mazes have to be 
traversed in less than 1 minute 
40 seconds. Contact with the 
maze wells adds a penalty to the 
clock. 

Eight numbered shapes ap- 
pear at the top of the screen in 
the sixth test of Agile Alertness. 
As the Sidhe moves aJong under 
each shape on the mein screen, 
its identifying number has to be 
keyed in Complete the game in 
less that 46 seconds to get closet 
to spiritual perfection. 

inner integration requires the 

K layer to spot angular shapes 
idden in abstract patterns, tra- 
cing the outlines with a cursor. 
All ten patterns must be found in 
under 1 minute 40 seconds. 
The final test, Fluent Function 




Am*jv-mg Turing Mind Body Mtotrtry on the pmth to 
perfection 



T causes one of them to disap- 
pear at random. As soon a Sidha 
leaves, press the corresponding 
number key . . . Two clocks at the 
top of the screen show how fast 
you reacted Tha aim, as in all 
the tests, is to score 1000 points. 

Vibrant Vision is test Number 
Two. The screen shows a square 
with a doorway in the middle. 
Two lines appear for a fraction of 
a second behind the door, one 
line slightly longer than the 
other — you have to decide 
which one is longest. 

For successful levitation the 
eyes must move in perfect har- 
mony with the body. Using the 
joystick for the next lest you 
must keep tha Sidha as close as 
possible to a moving target. The 
routine lasts two minutes, and 
points are lost for straying too 
far from the mobile target. 

The fourth test involves mat- 
ching shapes to numbered ex- 
amples in a race against the 

128 CRASH June 1986 



involves counting rows of little 
Sidhas and entering the tally 
into the computer. Second time 
around, the symbols change 
and become digits just to add to 
the confusion. 

The eight games are accessed 
from a menu, and can be prac- 
tised over and over until per- 
fection is reached. At any stage, 
calling up the Levi gram pro- 
duces a graphic display of your 
achievements so far on the path 
to perfection. 



CRITICISM 



• " The Secret of Levitation k« 
one of the strangest games I've 
ever ptaysd and reminds me of 
the first games that you typed in 
from magazines The bask idea 
is very simple and the graphics 
are very bask- The game does 
have a certain something, how* 




Steffi* tjkes to tin air. pcrtOrmrhij ttiyjttic#lm*ylc mftmr 
icon* of l.QQQ points nam bmrrt docked up 



that keep* you at ft for 
I played The Secret of 
levitation for about an hour 
before I got bored with it. and I 
still hadn't taken off, I'm sure 
this gem* would have bean 
better priced at ft. 99, but not a 
bad effort at the budget 
market, 

• "/ haven't seen a gome like 
this for ages, t was beginning to 
believe thai software houses 
had learnt their tesson that 
games like this don't self, even tf 
they are dressed up with an 
original name, f didn't realty 
have any joy playing this game. 
The graphics area httle poor — a 
few floating Gurus here and 
there — our they do their job. 
The sound is also sub-average. 
Not much here to keep me mt- 
anasted for any length of time. " 

ft " I might have liked this game 
if there was a bit more to it. As it 
is, ifs just a series of simple 
puzzles. Maybe some would 
argue that nine totally different 
games represent good value for 
money at £2.99, but I'm afraid I 
just don't agree. The graphics 
are below par, and much more 
could have been dona to bring 



this product up to the sort of 
standard I expect. Ova re If, every 
BASIC game that I don't think is 
worth much of anyone's time or 
money. " 



COMMENTS 



Control keys: different for each 

sub-game 

Joystick: Kempston 

Keyboard play: no problems 

Use of colour: simple 

Graphics: simplistic 

Sound: beepy tunef els end so 

on 

SkU) levels; one 

Screens; 9 1 ill le games plus 

score screen and levitating 

monk 

General rating: Not e stunning 

start to a new range of software 



Use of computer 42% 

Graphics 39% 

Payability 49% 

Getting started 55% 

Addictive qualities 44 

Value for money 48% 

Overall 45% 



THE YOUNG ONES 



Producer; Orpheus 

Retail price: £7.95 
Author: Richerd Wllkins 



The saga of crazy-wacky 
student antics continues 
with Vyvyan, Rick, Mike 
and Neil competing for social 
domination in their seedy stu- 
dent digs. Comrade Bolowski, 
their landlord, has had enough 
of their sloveny living habits and 
is turfing ail four out. You must 
help them pack up their belong- 
ings so they can leave- 
To start, you choose which 
Young One you wan no become, 
and a different set of belongings 
has to be gathered up for each 
character The characters all act 
appropriately: Mike, for inst- 
ance, wants to take his loud ties 
while Rick won't leave without 



his anarchic girlie dresses. Each 
character has to collect his 
belongings and put them into 
the appropriate moving-out 
container. Rick packs a rucksack, 
Neil has a wheelbarrow, Mike 
uses a suitcase end Vyvyan cho- 
oses the bin liner, Once these 
have been located it's a case of 
pattering around the house try- 
ing to gel things together; Pack- 
ing is made difficult because the 
other three also pick up some of 
your character's property 

The game is controlled via a 
nested menu system, with three 
main options; Action; Talk and 
Walk. Action enables you to pick 
up, drop, open, close, eat or 
smash objects, Talk puts words 
into your character's speech 
bubble — paying attention to 
what is said provides clues to 
the whereabouts of objects. The 
| walk option allows movement 






round the property Walk' acc- 
esses a list of rooms, and select- 
ing the required location move* 
your character. The radio and 

T : V to provide hint*, (,00- 

Once you r character has pack- 
ed up atl his belongings he ia 
free to leave the house and 
search tor somewhere new lo 
crash for the night . . , 



CRITICISM 



• " Then is nothing about this 
gem* thet stand* out or tanpf- 
esae* m* in any way. It's un 
playable, unaddictrve and gene- 
rally boring. Th* graphics, al- 
though oOlOuHul, are full of 
colour clash: the character ani- 
mation n jerky and a bit flickery 
and the sound n limited to the 
odd spot effect here and more. 
The one thing that really sur- 
prised me was the swearing 1 tt 
an"! something that I've come 
before in computer 
There isn't much to this 



game. I doubt even ardent fans 
of the aerie*, will be impressed " 



• " I really wanted this to be a 
good game, but it's the exact 
0pp6Sit6- useless The inlay i$ 
highly amusing, but target? iff- 
ewwtf to the garnet The things 




8M*c ting AC JlON on *h» nwmi 
/lis (artel training syiteni and He 
pwct ctf jnarhiiKtry 



. whiiv Miktr o (plains 

has probt#m% wtth * r>Mvy 



said inside the speech bubbles 
are initially quite amusing, as 
you see the characters saying 
things you hear them say on the 
T.V., but after a while the fang 
uage gets pretty appalling. The 
graphics are small and uninter- 
esting, and colour clashes occur 
everywhere. I think The Young 
Ones is math/ Sub standanj. 
Orpheus' slogan reads 'never 
look back', t wouldn't waste my 



time even turning around for a 
game that's as bad as this. " 

• " Yes, the TV series was great, 
but I'm afraid The Young Ones 
computer game is a ternbte let 
down. All it seems to be is an 
excuse for Orpheus to put a few 
swear words in the game end 
think that 'the kids' will love it. 
One problem with the idea, th- 
ough, you've got (o have a game 



to start with. Not so in this case. 
The only relevance to the TV 
aerie* is that there are tour 
'guys' living in a building. You 
can't realry play The Young 
Ones seriously m my opinion — 
more fun is had watching The 
other people in the house walk- 
ing around saying very stupid 
things. When I played the game 
properly 1 got very bored, as 
there isn't much to it. I can't 
recommend it. '" 



COMMENTS 



Control keys: P page up menu, 

ENTER page down menu, to 

select 

Joystick : ttempston. Cursor 

Keyboard play : responsive 

Use of colour: not very sublle 

Graphics: just adequate 

Sound: blips and burps 

Skill levels; one 

Screen*: split screen play area 

General rating: Oh deeri 



Us* of computer 


56% 


Graphics 


49% 


Play ability 


42% 


Getting started 


44% 


Addictive qualities 


40% 


Value for money 


40% 


Overall 


42% 



CONGRA TUL 



R + R Distribution 
congratulate Crash Magazine 
and wish them continuing 
success. 



R + R Distribution the supplier 
of home computer software to 
Crash, Zxap and Am tin 



r 
i 
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i 
i 
i 
i 
i 
i 

L 



Reply now for further information 

NAME 



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(0977) 795544 



fOSKQOt 




DISTRIBUTION 




DISTRIBUTION 

(0977) 795544 

nuxMDJt»HMnrrc tAXMaOvnrvom 




CRASH June 1986 129 



ffiWql 



FRIDAY 13th 



Producer: Oomartc 

Retail price: £8.95 



If you've seen the film(s) then 
you'll already know the back 
ground to this game. For the 
benefit of those who missed 
them, here's a quick summary: 
people staying at a quiet holiday 
camp at Crystal Lake find their 
peace shattered when a young 
boy. Jason, accident ly drowns. 
His mother is so distraught at his 
death that she blames the other 
campers who did nothing to 
save him. One by one they are all 
murdered by Jason's Mum, until 
only one girl remains alive. She 
manages to kill Jason's psyco- 
pathic mother. All alone in the 
middle of the lake, the lone sur- 
vivor waits while slowly the 
ghost of Jason rises from be- 
neath its murky depths to take 
his revenge. 




Chug chugpo** ihm tractor. Sum ovjxom* t*»»»*i* Hilt kilt 
gomiJmton, in Oomifk't FRIDAY 13th 



The game picks up where the 
Him leaves off. You are now a 
camper at the ill-fated holiday 
camp and Jason, predictably 
enough, js still wreaking havoc 
it is up to you to find a sanctuary 
which Jason won't enter and 
then persuade the other nine 
campers to join you there before 
Jason sends them on perman- 
ent holiday. 

At the start of the game the 
computer selects one of the ten 
campers at Crystal Lake, and 
you take on his or her person- 
ality The holiday makers ell 
have individual personalities 
and react differently during the 
game according to their parti- 
cular strengths and weaknesses, 
Jaeori is a cowardly soul and 
always attacks the person 
whose panic level is the highest. 
Although it is up to you to save 
your friends from a grizzly 
death, you are by no means 

130 CRASH June 1986 



are replaced with tombstones. 

Jason scampers around the 
playing area selecting weapons 
from his arsenal and eliminating 
campers one by one. starting 
with the most panic stricken 
holidaymafcer. The ultimate aim 
of the game is to save all the 
campers from an untimely end 
by killing Jason before he kills 
them. Although he's a homicidal 
maniac, Jason is frightened of a 
cross which can be found on the 
campsite — collect this and 
deposit it in a room and Jason 
can't harm anyone who stays 
with the cross. 

Once a sanctuary has been set 
Up by depositing the cross in the 
bam, church or house, you must 
persuade your playmates to take 
refuge Walking up to a camper, 
it's possible to shepherd him or 
her to the Sanctuary you have 
established. These people ars 
on holiday, however, and des- 



immune from the growing f rati- 
fy of your fellow 
sunworshippers 

The status of your character 
during the game is displayed at 
the foot Of the screen. Three 
windows are used to indicate 
the levels of panic, strength and 
sanity you possess. Gradually, 
se panic levels rise, the hair on 
the head of a little portrait in the 
status area begins to stand on 
end An ice hockey mask — as 
worn by Jason — fills In on 
another window to indicate the 
mental state of the character you 
are playing, the more mas* the 
madder you are! Strength is 
displayed via a barbell which 
rises and falls, mirroring the 
physical status of the hero or 
heroine of the tale es it unfolds. 
Ten little icons on the rig hi of the 
status area represent the camp- 
ers at Crystal Lake, and as Jason 
eliminates them their figurines 




Hmtf of the tmmm of c*mp*rt who ' hohdm y" in FRIO A Y I Jtft, 
ffte jolty murdering </*m« from Dvmarh 



ptm the fact that there's a 
murderous loony at the resort 
they're determined to have fun I 
rt is quite hard to get them to 
stay indoors, and they regularly 
wander off to go sunbathing or 
even swimming in Crystal Lake. 

Jason looks just like a regular 
holidaymaker — he can only be 
spotted when he's killing some- 
one on screen. As it is imposs- 
ible to distinguish Jason from 
the other characters, you may 
try to lead him to the Sanctuary, 
in which case he scares the 
campers off, and you have to 
move the cross to another loca- 
tion, set up a new sanctuary and 
start herding the campers to 
safely once more. 

To even the odds a little in the 
game, Jason is careless with his 
weapons, leaving them lying 
around. There are ten in all and 
you can pick up and use a 
weapon you come across. Only 
one death dealing impliment 
can be carried at a time, though 
— there's no point in getting 
greedy. If you succeed in saving 
all the campers and kill Jason 
too, then he takes on the per 
sonality of your character and 
the game moves to the next 
level of difficulty where you 
assume the persona of another 
camper 



CRITICISM 



S) " There was • tot of hyp* over 
this game, in fact the NewsfwU 
office is stil knee deep In head 
lass rubber bats and plastic 
knives from DomsrVs visit a 
few months ago. After playing 
the game for a bit I feel that 
most of the hyp* was unjusti- 
fied Graphically. Friday the 13th 
hasn't very much to offer; tha 
characters are blocky, undetail- 
ed and jerky as is tha playing 
area. I also had a few problems 
accessing different screens so 
after a short time I had just 
about given up with this one, 
although I did go onto nearly 
complete the first level The 
only thing that realty appealed 
to me about this game n that 
you can murder your innocent 
mends and get millions of 
points by replacing tha cross in 
tha same room. I wouldn't rec- 
ommend Friday the 13th 
though 'cos compelling it 
aei't.'* 



a) * The film is great, with Jason 
running around chopping peo- 
ple's heads off, but disappoint- 
ment hits me once again, ft 
Domark had tried, Friday 13th 
could have been a good game 
with such a scary storyfine. On 
the inlay it sa y$ 'lock aft doors' — 
hut why? No spectacular graph- 
ics, end a tew colours on build- 
ings and more would be* bettef. 
Sound is scarce as not much 
came to my attention through- 
Out the game and qualities like 
this aren't going to keep your 
eyes on the screen or fingers on 
the keyboard tor long. All t can 
suggest is dose all windows and 
doors, hire a video and watch 
that instead. " 

• " For a while it seemed that 
Domark s standards were actu- 
ally improving — Gladiator real- 
ly wasn't that bad- Friday the 
73th. however, sees the return of 
that old Domark bad taste and 
ineptness of production. I'm 
sorry, but it's just absolutely 
awful. What's really bad is thai 
as with most naffo releases, the 
program's main selling period 
will be over by now and any 
punter who was going to be had 
by the excessive hype already 
has been. For anyone consider- 
ing buying this release the 
fairest thing to say is have o took 
at it first as anyone who then 
thinks it's quite decent deserves 
the horrors that the game is 
replete with. " 



COMMENTS 



Control keys: Q up, A down, 

left. P right, M fire 

Joystick: Kempston 

Keyboard play: adequate 

Use of colour: not subtle 

Graphics: rather crude, a bit 

grotty 

Sound : ( M e sc rea m ing 1 h e sia rt 

is the best bit 

4PjtM iavst&: 3 

Scree ns : scrolling play area 

General rating : On dear, oh 

dear 



Use of computer 44% 

Graphics 31% 

Ptayabiltty 38% 

Getting started 45% 

Additive qualities 32% 

Value for money 25% 

vflfH Sat. 7» 





f 



o 




< 



V // 



s 



m 



W4 M 

■ LI (SI 



SPECTRUM 48K 



MOV YbU tiOlD TO IWTO GOTtiflM CITY 
AND TO WORLD Of TO 

CflPfD CRUSADf ft 



AMSTRAD 






Telephone 061 Pi ,'6631 
*^77 Oic*b G 




n Bounder you have a 

Tittle bouncing tennis hall 

to play with — but you're 

not going to be playing tennis 

The whole idea of the game is to 

the ball through screen 

upon screen of obstacles while 




'*^«*p«Z^*^w*Z* 



i 







s 






1 v I 



SSS 



* * 



II 



rfiuve rui'iwi (/oobftM »ji rfe* mtddlt, at thm mcrmmn mrm 
tmlmport ttuminalf L*rtd an one intf you attire on fhp offMir 
4 coupte nfpattofttny Ptrrrorm mrm in tfi^hl pn fh« •do*« of 
nt *t/«t*.ri, tjjfl 



132 CRASH June 




IT 



B'O'U-N'D-E'R 



boundng along the pathway of 
hexagonal paving stones that 
scrolls down the screen, It's a 
platform game witti 

altoget- 
>et\ levels— your 
ball is 
jomy to nave his wo. 
out lor htm. The most general 
s to avoid anything that 
moves, and onfy bounce 
hexagonal parts of the screen. 
This isn't as easy as it might 
sound because all manner of 
nasties have been put In your 
way. Theie are pil gged 

locks, stone walls - - ve to 

lavigate 

broki 

ihrte of ti 
baits on 

Apart from the rocks and 
glass, a range of mobile nasties 
patrol the playing area intent on 
bursting voir 

chum Binoculoids whi*/ found 
trying to knock the ball off 
birds swoop 
down on you, Stickrts, Chomper 
Domes and Exocets do their best 
to live up to tii 
must negotiate your way around 

• nnis 

■way or 
ere are a few 

allies iow- 

■Twr, alio inc Tnr'no^c worm ismi i 




"At first glance Bounder 
didn't seem to be ■ promts 
lng game, but things soon 
changed! I've got to give it 
to Gremlin Graphics for 
originality — I have never 
seen a game like it before. 
Once you start off, bounc- 
ing all over the piece, it 
becomes quite addictive, 
operating your ball and 
dodging low flying birds 
and other weird looking 
nasties. Okay, so there's 
only one colour per level, 
which some people might 
find a bit off-putting and 
duM, but the fast scrolling 
makes up for the lack of 
colour. Gameplay is quite 
fast so you don 't get bored : 
there's no way this one can 
get monotonous Bounder 
is a game I can 
recommend " 



set against or Bouncy La' 
on a square With an arrow in it 
supercharges the next bounce 
and the ball can stay in the ai r for 
twice as long as usual Teleports 
warp the ball to the next telepon 
i voiding any 
siting in between. Myster- 
ious question mark squares 
conceal surprises landing on 
one reveals the secret, v 




may be some extra bounces for 
the Bounoeometer ai the bottom 
of the screen, an extra life or two 
— or a nasty shock may be in 
sior- 

' tie end of a each level 

"hrough a 
goal and it's on to the bonus 
screen. You're presented with a 
II of question r 
h holds a vt 

is points The 
iineier in the-, 
reveals how mar 

>ou on the bonus 
screen, and economical jump- 
ing, is called for if maximum 
points are to be collected from 
the questionmark bank I An ex- 
tra bonus ts awarded if the ball 
lands on all the bonus sq 
on the screen. 





" Bounder is just brilliant i 
would say that the overall 
gameplay is definitely the 
best out of the three mach- 
ine versions I've seen and 
the graphics are up to the 
very high quality that I've 
come to expect from Grem- 
lin. The game idea is very 
old — a platform game — 
but the new angle put on 
the view of the action gives 
a whole new dimension, 
literally The presentation 
is excellent, with good 
packaging and an excell- 
ently drawn title screen — 
there's even a little ditty to 
accompany the scrolling 
messages below the menu 
The graphics consist of lots 
of very detailed baddies 
and goodies. Bouncing 
around is animated bnlii 
antfy, and the addictive 
ness is greatly increased 
because of the bonus scr- 
eens which can improve 
your score tremendously 
The great play ability 
means you'll be coming 
bach to this one long after 
you bounced your first 
ball ' 






ol its ov. • 

and sm,i 
tl 
own di 
wards si 
you to try and gi 



bounces 

ng larger 

noves in rela- 

— if left to iis 
ploughs 

- so it's up to 
way from 



certain extinction If it •■ ball 
does stray off the st» 
narrow {although there's no str- 
aight but plenty of nor r 
game.) it plummets into the 
. iw and a new ball pops 



" This was one of the 
Commodore games that 
got played in the ZZAP! 
office next door by every- 
one, ft has lost some app- 
ear in the conversion onto 
Spectium but it's good fun 
nevertheless The graphics 
are fairly good, and the 
playing area is very com- 
pie k so it's often quite h a rd 
to tell what is going on The 
characters are all vary nice- 
h/ drawn and animated si 
though they do tend to 
blend in with the surround- 
ings a little. The sound is 
about average I suppose; 
there are a few spot effects 
during the game and a very 
nice tune on the title scr- 
een. Generally I'm not one 
hundred per cent impress- 
ed with this one. but it is 
quite playable and 
addictive " 



it a different part of the 
screen, usually where you least 

One tittle yellow tennis ball is 

:oly dreaming wistfully of 

:<iedon this year 

much safer on the tennis court. 

even if you do get to hear some 

rude words 




Control keys; Q left, W 

right. L up, P down. M 

toggles pause. BREAK to 

■i«,'i 

Joystick: Kempston, 

Cursor, interface 2 

Keyboard play: very 

responsive 

Use of colour; simple but 

effective t 

Graphics very neat 

animation, smooth 

scrolling 

Sound, jolly title tune plus 

Spa ( effect 

Skill levels: One, ten levels 

to game 

Screens; i?a 

General rating: A very 

original platform variant, 

neatly executed 

Use of computer 88% 

Graphics 91% 

Payability 90% 

Getting started [ 3Q 

Addictive qualities 39% 

Value for money 88% 

Overall 90% 



CRASH June 1986 133 



P.E*N*T*A'G'R*A*M 




BBBB1 





iSX2a!S22asS£SXS£2L'~'* 



fabreman is back! After 
escaping from Under- 
wuride via one gkiI which 
took him into Knight Lore and 
problems with a spot of lycan 
thropy t LM L WD ) , he ca n now set 
oul on [ha quest for the 
PENTAGRAM 

Leaving Underwuride, Sabre- 
man pauses only to snatch up a 
copy of the Grand Arch Wizardry 
spefi book before stomping off 
into the forest. No pith helmet 
for Sabreman this lima — he 
scampers round in a hooded 
cloak, andean defend himself by 
hurling sparkling baits of magic- 
al energy 

And defend himself ne must, 
for the forest is inhabited by a 



Producer: Ultimate 
Retail price: £9.95 
Author: Ashby 
Computers and Graphics 
Ltd 






variety of unpleasant creatures 
that have a habit of suddenly 
materialising at just the wrong 
moment. Witches riding broom- 
sticks and sleepwalking zombies 
can be zapped with a quick burst 
of magic, but their touch, like 
that of the unzappable spider 
creatures, is deadly, Sabreman 
only has a stock of five live* to 
hand, so care needs to be taken 
when killer nasties are in the 
vicinity. 

Other manifestations, includ- 
ing ghosts, giant lice and amor- 
phous blobs also turn up in the 
game from time to time, but they 

134 CRASH June 1986 



are not deadly — just a nuisance, 
getting in Sabreman's way and 
making life more difficult They, 
too, can be despatched with a bit 
of well-hurled magic. 

Aa is usual with Ultimate 
games, the in lay doesn't contain 
too many hints about the quest 
on which Sabreman has emba- 
rked, but it seems thai section* 
of the PENTAGRAM must be 
gathered up and bathed in the 
waters from a well that lurks 
behind a wall of mantraps — 
runes must be found too, and 
than the PENTAGRAM finally 
becomes Sabreman's personal 
possession. 




" Ultimata have finally rat* 
eased one of the follow ups 
to Knight Lore and what a 
good follow up it Is toe 
The graphics are of course 
in the Ultimate style, but 
people shouldn't complain 

cos it's a good idea and 
why shouldn't they use it 
over and Over again? Ulti 
mate, I feel, have put in 
more of a range Of detailed 
graphics than the other 
games, and the nasties 
that keep materialising are 
very good and add to the 
whole game immensely, 
which means that there's 
no hanging about in your 
quest for the penta 
GRAM I don't think you'll 
get bored with this at all At 
tan pound* rt presents 
better value for money 
than their other releases, 
and it's a must for all arc 
ade /advent ure players " 



The forest locations through 
which Sobfcman passes on his 
quest are presented in the same 
3D perspective Ultimate used m 
Aden 8 and Knight Lore, and the 
control system is also similar: 
the robed adventurer can only 
walk and jump forwards, and 
has to be rotated until he is 
facing in the appropriate direc- 
tion before a move is made. 

Progress through the locat- 
ions is not always straightfor- 
ward) — sometimes sheets of 
spikes or mantraps block the 
pathway and have to be hu rdied , 
Objects, including tables, logs 
and blocks of stone can be 
moved by shoving them or fin rig 
a blast of magic — handy, 
because getting through some 
location;, is a problem in itself. 
Evil looking dogshead guard i 
ens patrol some of the entrances 
and exits, making trips between 
forest locations rather tricky. 

A tune plays on the title screen 
and once the start key has been 
depressed, a few seconds clap 




'Well what a long wait, 
but at last it's heterPenia 
pram is not that different 
from the rest of the trilogy 
of 30 games: nevertheless 
H presents a considerable 
challenge to complete and 
map I still think Ultimate 
are lead the field at this sort 
of game, although Ocean's 
Bat man is perhaps the best 
of the rest. The scene is 
wan set by the packaging 
which creates a good atm- 
osphere. Sabreman is con- 
trolled easily and precisely 
with no delay, although I 
noticed that the action 
tended to slow up when 
there was • lot on the 
screen, but that's not such 
a bad point — it gives you a 
chance to realise where 
everything Is. Definitely 
another one to add to your 
Ultimate arcade adventure 
collection ..." 



se before the game begins — 
Sabreman doesn't begin his 
advent 1 1 re horn the same part of 
the forest each time, and the 
objects that have to be collected 
aren't always in the same loca- 
tion. As objects ere gathered up. 
they appear in the left hand 
status area, under the little icon 
that represents the number of 
lives remaining. Each time a 
nasty is sent on the trip to 
oblivion with 9 blest of magic, 
points are added to your score, 
so it's not just a matter of gat- 




" Ultimate s latest offering 
b definitely cast m the 
same mould as Alien 8 and 
Knight Lore, and as such is 
bound to appeal to anyone 
Who enjoys a good romp 
through a maze of locat- 
ions, solving puzzle* along 
the way- The graphics are 
all pretty and well design- 
ed and solving the puzzles 
contained in the game 
should give even the smar- 
test of Alecs ten pound's 
worth of satisfaction, tt'd 
be nice if Ultimata came up 
with a totally new and dif- 
ferent concept for their 
newt game, though ..." 



hennq up the fragments of the 
PENTAGRAM: high score ehas- 
ingjs pan of gameplay 

The existence of Pentagram 
was first alluded to in Under* 
wvrtde, and now, nearly six 
months after it was first #dwr 
ttsed, it has wrpmt. But Sabre- 
man's trials end tribulations are 
still not over: Mtre Mare and the 
future beckons the Intrepid 
adventurer . . . 



'COMMENTSt 



Control keys Z, C. 8, M lufi. 
X,V,N>SYM SHIFT right, 
second row to wa Ik 
forward, 0. E, T. U, jump. 
W.R.y.f.P fire, number 
keys to pick up/drop, CAPS 
SHIFT, SPACE to pause 
Joystick: Kemps ton, 
Cursor, Interf see 2 
Keyboard play : no 
problems 
Use of colour: 
monochromatic, hence no 

I I, 'J Shi**, 

Graphics: 3D style made 
famous by Kntghttv 
Bound: tuneful start and 
finjsh music, plus spot 
effects 

Skill levels: one 
Screens: rather a lot 
General rating: Sabreman 
fans can't effo rd to m iss 
this one! 

Use of computer 94% 

Graphics 96 

Play ability 92% 

Getting started WT"* 

Addictive qualities 95% 

Value for money 91% 

Overall 93''.-. 






<\ 



\s 




ii(t0&?i 



I 



S_ 



Ps 




i 



Available Now 
on Spectrum 48K 



HUM \ k k 



****** **<»CfcM*fo(/Srf»„U ^^^M 




Producer: Hewsons 

Retail price: £8.95 
Author: Steve Turner 



136 CRASH June 1986 



crash. 



n 



evil cult of mularii 

,-ing the 
1 Bui 
iti help is .it ' 
m ihe form of KLP2, a psychotic 
otech droid 

nto, as he is known, is a 
I with A Past In his youth he 
was exposed to a rare form of 
hoi* which induced ;• 
id madj" 



iblc — hi 

>l for 
rjamol 

iram 
■ 
now he has a cham 

mating the 

luartech, 
dmids patrolling 
levels of Quataittin are pretty 
tough cookies, graded In 

classes ffbm one {very 
tough) lo i «ve some 

deadly w- 
are virtually 

Now . 

i-oid con ■ rid on 

account of h riis- 



-iiendable, 
all' 



CRITICISM 



" Quazatron owes * debt to 
the Cornrnodor* hit, Para- 
droid; though the graphics 
are very different, th« lift 
Sequence and grapple 
screen dre almost identical 
It's generally a great game, 
that's really fun to play and 
is instantly appealing The 
only real complaint that 
I've got is that the scrolling 
routine when you move 
about could be a lot smo- 
other, but as this doesn't 
interf e r e with gameplay, 
it's still one of the best 
games I've played on the 
Spectrum If you have seen 
the Commodore game and 
liked ft. I'd recommend you 
getQuazatron right now' " 



At the star] of the game Klepto 
it trnnsponed lo the under- 

I of Qui). 

<} the 
intling 



rt is a shoot em up 



V v 




■ for 

(o sc. 

Klcplo toddles up and down 
ramps look mo h 

patrolling droid allows 

■ 

Is; the figrn The 

grapple system in the • 
been i 1 1rom Hewson's 

and tl ■ rol of 

any of the cenlral bu- 
V screen as you i 

i ij must * 

■ 

imager! 

■ If the 
i help 



CRITICISM 



" Quazatroo is a true mas- 
terpiece. Nothing about it 
IS Of a bed standard — 
sound, graphics, payabil- 
ity and addictiveness, 
they're all there. Basically, 
this is the C64 game Para- 
rlroid jazzed up a bit with 
pretty graphics and redes- 
igned for the Spectrum, ft 
is very easy to get into if 
you've played the Commo- 
dore game, but I suggest 
you study the instructions 
for a while if you haven't, 
as they are complex and 
could be confusing. The 
graphic* ate about the best 
Pve eve* seen on this type 
of game: the characters are 
excellently drawn and full 
of detail as is the city in its 
many levels. Graphically, 
my only nag is that the 
scrolling is too stow. The 
sound n excellent, with a 
brilliant tune on the title 
screen, and the effects 
during the game are sec- 
ond to none. I can't really 
see myself putting this one 
down for a good while yet 
as it rs fun to play and very 
compelling. I strongly rec- 
ommend Oua/atron to 
everyone, " 



CRITICISM 



" Steve Turner has done a 
wonderful Job of producing 
a Paradroid type game — I 
reckon this is one of the 
best games ever to come 
out on the Spectrum Play- 
ability is superb: the 
game'll keep you at the 
computer for ages wonder- 
ing how you're going to kill 
the next droid that comes 
■long. The levels are very 
detailed and contain kits of 
baddies to short circuit 
The grapple mode is very 
good and needs lots o1 
patience and an ill to play. 
The character you control 
is very well animated and 
there are lots of nice 
touches to the gam*. The 
sound at the start is a very 
good two channel simulat- 
ion. Addictive qualities ere 
en ha need by the fact that ft 
is quite easy lo finish one 
level but a different matter 
altogether to go around 
and dear the whole city, 
This is definitely one game 
that will keep you at your 
Spectrum for months " 



to h*s victims un- 
damaged components 
ding the dm 

... 
any other special devices That 
may be present H lular 

IiC carrion n is 

to 

lowest I rilien 



Is Care should 






comes 



by 
jy thi 









CRASH June 1986 137 



and lists the weapt 
powr s and tj- 

: Details of Iho 
il to be, found on 
iy droidt 
lower security classes as Kl 



may toe called up — vital for 
planning a rational up 
path 
Travel between 

i q Kiepii 



a lift 

I Klcptocanv,! 



iq r< 







i on 

ver vi 
lunt 

n 

AhOI 



CJQfMflvcJV f w 



Control keys; A. 5. 0, F. G 
ipg H. J. K. L right 
and up, 9, N. M, SYM SHIFT 
left and down. Z.X.C. 
CAPS SHIFT right and 
down. ENTER to tiro, W to 
Toggle autof rrn . P to pause 
Joystick: Kempston. 
Cursor, Interface 
Keyboard play 
straightforward and 
respon*. 

Use Of Colour attractive 

Graphics: detailed, with 
cunning 30 but a little slow 
to scroll 

Sound: first rate 
Ski ll levels: one 
Scream: multilevel 
scrolling city 
General rating: An 
Tgome 

Use of computer 94% 

Graphics 93% 

Payability 93% 
Getting started 
Addictive qualities 

Value for money 33% 

Overall 94% 



RASH June 1986 



%amww of tm - ugh* j?> 




c^°fr 



enter tt* wortd of Avenger, a ni nja wainor 

of unparai leied smite ana deadiv powers as 

he battles the forces of evil m defence of his 

raltn and protection of tne weak 

Be calm and stay 51 lent as tne outstanding 

animation and unrivalled combat routines 

take you to Levels of action vou o never have 

- mouont possfDie 



And when vou believe you ve succeeded In 
overcoming all the odds, the next hi thb 
thrilling serves of adventures will beckon you 
forward to a further challenge of fleam. 



MSXS4K Spectrum48K Amstrad CBM 64/128 

GwmHn Grapfttcs Software Ufnited, Alplu Hwh, 10 Carv*rftr«t, Sheffield SI «FS. Tefc 074J 7SM33 



c . 1 

* ■ 

■ 

5c reemnots from Sin 


"CI 


1 


B. ' 


num«8K 




fromih* 
that brd 





T 



,1 



d\ 



comes 







Officially Licenced Coi 



Essssa 



***: 



& 








(*£.*"'* 



W 




Mailorder * 
Just send a cheque or postal onto payabU I 
to Elite, or quote your Access or Visa no. tc 
get your copy of Ghost's n' Goblins 



1 i 



Spectrum 48/128- - CT.SS^cass) 
Amstrad — £».9£ (cass) 

— £14 9S (disc) 
Commodore 64/128 — £9.95 (c£ss> 

— ff14.95{disc) 
BBC B/ Electron — £9.95 (cass) 

— £14.95 (disc) 
[Commodore C16/+ 4 — £7,95 (cass) 







a. A 






m ' Q 






1 



>,«,- a„„^^0~-.,I AMfif( nB UU 9 |«aII PnnlanH T*»i nq?? R9lfi5 TplflX ; 335622-Jj